Dot Inkwell said “I've decided to join your party!”

Corvayne watched as the librarian tower-folk they had helped with her personal quest declared she was joining them. She had thrust her chin up, and her hair had become a little disheveled in the process. Arms back, her stance yelling defiance.

Corvayne of course was sure that statement was going to have detractors. He suspected that Spears would shift towards Bell in saying no to Dot joining them, both for breaking the party size of 6 and dooming them to double bosses, but more because Bell was over protective of Corvayne and Spears and her had a real friendship that had developed before either started dating him. Maybe they would also agree because he kept ending up with more then one lover. Mister I, sometime in the past, had made sure Corvayne understood that two was a lot more then one. Grunt, later, had made sure Corvayne knew that three wasn't a lot more then two.

He wasn't interested in Dot. He had been with a more interesting girl who read a lot, two of them in fact, and his experience with librarians was, outside of fiction that tried to tell them they were hot because they were repressed, entirely comprised of dealing with one who hated his guts.

Maybe Mister I would object because he was cut off from his scrolls on cultivating. A book might be missing just from being misplaced, but it was much harder to explain away a missing daughter. Maybe not. It depended if he thought Corvayne was going to say yes for healthy reasons.

He looked at Spears and saw she was thinking about something, so maybe that was a maybe. Grunt was rubbing his chin and seemed to be looking at everyone carefully. Maybe he was on the fence as well?

Bell spoke first. "Fine. I trust Corvayne, and I think we shouldn't close ourselves off from getting more experts. The Tower is open, it should be us who pioneer and profit from it!”

Mister I rubbed his chin. “Then, we should make for the bar. I want a cultivator who is looking to train me!”

Lady Blood Claw nodded. “If she isn't an information providing class, we should look at recruiting one. But I think what we should do is look at townsfolk before we go for mercenaries in the bar.”

Corvayne sort of understood. “It's both a matter of trust and that it's harder to get someone doing mercenary work to commit to coming to a new world...”

Spears looked at them. “Isn't this outside the scope of what we were doing?”

Grunt nodded, but held up a bunch of fingers. Seven? Thumbs down. Twelve? Thumbs up.

“The only thing I would say doesn't favor spending time recruiting is that we have the book the Book-Binder wanted to tell us what's wrong with Wick.”

Bell scoffed. “I was warned about that.”

Corvayne was confused at Bell's statement, but Spears gave her a gentle elbow and spoke up while Bell rubbed her side. “I also think we should ask Dot if the memento she found from her father means anything. The Tower seems to push us to dig deeper for the best rewards.”

Corvayne looked upwards. “If he put it on floor 20, and mentioned it to her parents, he wanted her to go up the tower. Maybe see if there is a stairway on floor 21? Or something on those floors we cleared?”

Mister I nodded. “We go then. I took pictures of the scrolls so I can read them at my leisure.”

Corvayne pulled out his current phone. “I should have thought of that... Before we go does anyone need anything from town?”

Grunt ran off and came back with his stubble cleanly shaven. Dot composed a letter to her mother and paid someone to send it. She also bought a backpack and bought some food, water, and other things such as rope and a fire starting kit that an adventurer might need. Corvayne suggested a wand as well, in case she wanted to see if she could manifest some sort of magic.

“I don't know if Librarian is just a professional class or if it can identify, but if there's a magic component we should help your subjob support that.”

Dot thought about it. “I'm mostly good at organizing information. I was told that's a good way to help protect myself, but that I'm more useful with books. I'll try to encourage a mage job for now, I trust you won't lead me astray.”

It struck Corvayne that she was pretty easy to direct. He thought back to that innkeeper from the third floor and how defensive he was of Tower-Folk as a whole and once again found himself appreciating he had run into him before they started dealing with them.

Mister I pointed at Corvayne then at Spears. “We also should figure out what your secondary jobs are right now and what you want them to be! Leave not a crumb of power on the table uneaten!”

Bell stared at Mister I. “You lick the table?”

“Never...” A pause, then much lower. “... for grains.”

Corvayne suspected he should have brought Hari to help figure out the extra class that supposedly was shifting to help him do whatever, but he also needed more time. He couldn't help but sometimes think about her and Wick, even if he loved the girls he was with. Spear moves forward, just like adults move on. Right?

While he was rolling back to old cicular thinking, the party restocked. Given they had rested enough, they walked back into the tower looming over the town and made their way up the floors. There were only a handful of monster knights in the way to floor 20. The guards at the bottom had been happy to see them again, but Corvayne warned them that it wasn't going to be as thorough a cleaning. True to what he said, their group spent only a handful of minutes between stairs, with usually two or three monsters each floor. Without formations, they were easy prey, even up to 20. Corvayne took some burns from priests blasting him with light, but they were otherwise unscathed as they entered the garden full of Fire hurling succubi.

“Modest Pyromancers” was what LBC called them, which was an okay name. There were five on the floor and Spears took point, drinking water after each fight to replace what she lost as steam. Dot collected the dresses and some of the bones.

“Look around, see if there's anything that strikes you as a hint or sign.”

She nodded, looking at the stain glass windows and statues that had been covered by roots. They entered the central chamber too, thankfully devoid of dragons. Dot looked around the room, then started climbing the tree. “The glass up there!”

She was looking at one of the windows. She pointed at a glass window where Corvayne saw what looked like a man in worn clothes, and broken buildings, mixed with what looked like cypress trees. Lady Blood Claw saw it and grumbled. Corvayne remembered to get a picture, then afterwards turned to LBC.

“What's wrong?”

“That's the third world past the imperial gate. Poisoned air, zombies, society breaking down.”

Bell folded her arms. “Well then, we need magical protection from poison air, zombies, and wonderful hover bikes to ferry us over land.”

Spears tousled her hair. “You really love high tech toys!”

Mister I added. “Wait until you see what accessories they have for massaging your sore muscles!”

Grunt gave him a high five for some reason. Whatever. Spears gave him a dirty look, which meant he probably missed a joke. Bell got it after Spears and looked furious, but Corvayne lead them back down to the stairs up to the Boss of the capital T Tower floor.

Despite being tempted by many different sub floors, they got the Inn again. The wood this time was a more natural warm brown color with green highlights, and someone had put nice knitted tablecloths on everything. Perhaps the Tower itself was happy he was doing quests in it?

“We are not stressed on time. Who wants to recruit, and who wants to eat or rest or look for info?”

Grunt held up 1 finger. He was going to get one person. He mimed casting a spell. Corvayne guessed that their team might hit something like Spears sometime that was resistant to hitting it, and while they had magic weapons he had seen how Spears got nearly killed and spent weeks recovering from one strong elemental attack.

Mister I beamed and held up 1 finger as well. “I'll find someone who can cultivate with me!”

Corvayne thought about that. “I didn't ready many Scanjo.. zan yeah? I didn't read many of those stories but isn't that usually a euphemism for-”

“Teamwork.” Mister I nodded, putting a hand on Corvayne's shoulder. “I need someone who will work together well with my core. Someone I can put my hands on their huge... reserves of wisdom.”

Bell thought for a bit. “We should keep 1 space open, I'm going to pass and sample the food.” She walked over to the bar, then shot a look back at Corvayne. “Don't you dare recruit some sexed up elf or catgirl or whatever!”

Corvayne nodded. “I am plenty happy with what I have.” He briefly thought about nearly getting crushed by huge diamond tits. He forced himself to think normal thoughts about how he might develop his weapon skills and learn more.

Spears put a cup on a table to mark it as the meeting point, then turned. “I'm going to go find a cute girl for Corvayne.” Dot seemed to follow her, but stopped. “Can you please tell me your preferences?”

“No but thank you for asking Dot.”

Lady Blood Claw motioned for Corvayne to go to the bar. He turned from Spears and Dot and followed her as she spoke. “First, I want to ask the barkeeper about the duration people expect to work and prices, and so on.”

The barkeeper this time was a short girl with pink hair and fairy wings. Corvayne looked away then back and she had become a robot with an impeccable suit on. In a posh voice it asked. “What can I do for you sir and madame?”

Lady Blood Claw thought for a moment. “Can I get a french press latte and some pointers on finding Mercenaries?”

“Of course.” It whirred and stared fixing the drink, while it spoke. “Most of the fellows you see are offering their service for a boss or set of floors. If they are cast out of the party they are in, it will pop them back here if they don't reach the boss of the next floor. Otherwise it puts them in the Inn before that challenge.”

“So this isn't a set of everyone who ever was on floor 5 or something, but people who are on some Floor 5?”

“These spaces reach beyond many of the things you think of as boundaries for the universe. So while it's who's on a floor 5 inn somewhere, some beings are able to be on every floor if they choose, and even ones less far on the path to full dimensionality will be on a few floors at once. That's not counting versions of people who merc at different times, nor people in the bar for other reasons that you might try to pitch recruiting. The system will guide you to what you want, and sometimes what you don't know that you need.”

Corvayne supposed the barkeep was gently telling them that as usual, the Tower cheated reality and that yes, it might as well be everyone who was ever in the bar. He decided to move on to the likely more rigid social expectations. “How does it normally go?”

The bar keeper had shifted when he blinked or looked at LBC into a gorilla, also impeccably dressed in a suit. A pretty expressive one too and well spoken with a baratone voice. “Well, you think of what you need and you'll see tables. If you have a budget, keeping it in mind will reduce the chances of getting someone who only will help with floor 5 for ten gold artifact tokens. Most Mercenaries are there to either assist with the Boss fight or Boss then next set of floors, with pay daily. If you can't afford a day, they drop. The system knows.”

The barkeeper shrugs, then thinks. “There's some that have share contracts, where they get a portion of the spoils. These tend to be unfair, so to speak, to their part in the group. So expect double shares and almost always a first pick clause. Rarely, someone asks for a class of items or materials, that's a sign they are a crafter trying to push through levels or tiers. Or are double mercing for a crafter who hired them to get raw mats.”

“You can get people who are looking for tit for tat. Some groups get stuck on a floor without funds to hire a full party, so members will work with the reciprocation that you find the 'third option' and return to the Inn.”

Corvayne held up a hand. “I've never seen a third option.”

“They don't always show up. But the quick fix is you go across to a different stairway, go down a floor from say, six, then walk back up either the original stairway or a new one. You have a very high chance of getting my humble Inn if you owe someone there a quest.”

“But not just going back and forth?”

“Tower made the rules. Don't ask me. It's good karma to finish those quests, but the person who offers to merc for a trade should be ready to find that people will take advantage of them.”

Lady Blood Claw took her coffee and sipped it. “Ahhh.” She paused to collect her thoughts. “But you talked about karma, which means that the Tower probably doesn't like people who lie.”

“The System is aware of the deals being made. There are plenty of villains. It's trying to make heroes.” The barkeep said, now a former adventurer wearing part armor part casual clothing while cleaning a glass.

“There's one more type of merc. They take their pay, but they have a quest or goal behind them that they are really looking for help with.”

Corvayne got it. That was the sort of person they could recruit past just a few days, provided they could help them with the task they wanted. “Like how if someone was able to remove my curses, I'd probably be all-in with helping them with their problem.”

Lady Blood Claw nodded. “Okay. I think for now, we spend some money on killing a double boss, but also as a means to see what classes do. Knowing that will hint at how they finished their build.”

“We also can start laying down the building blocks of relationships we'll use in the future.”

Corvayne thought about their organization. “We have some magical talent, but at some point we need to know what experts know about how to optimize, if there's ways to get more spells, which spells would be worth getting. You sort of, intuit them, the same way I sometimes figure out weapon skills, right?”

Lady Blood claw thought about it. “I sometimes figure them out on my own, but we did find some magic books that I learned spells from. I suspect there's spells that are on every enchanter list like fairy fire, and ones that I only ever saw on the training books I used when I was an apprentice to the Magus, such as the spell 'Somulant Cloud.'”

Corvayne didn't admit that he thought it was just one of her powers. “So there's probably a market for rare spells, and we know from the library that there are requirements for classes that probably hinge on knowing and using certain spells or classes of spells.”

LBC Nodded. “Then we have... Spears with some asinine pick to try to get a cute girl, and Mister I looking to try to learn a brand new system... so we should hire two. One an interesting higher tier, and someone who has a quest who in turn can help us with a goal or something we don't have.”

Corvayne looked at her, seeing her eyes shifting color from yellow to green. “And what is it we are missing?”

“I want someone who understands the Tower systems and knows what we should be doing. We spent a lot of time under floor 15. If we are doing something stupid, I don't want to have to trade shoveling shit for 10 years to the dust man to find out.”

Corvayne thought about it. “Okay. We'll look for a high tier we can copy, and a... coach with a quest. Easy enough we can complete it, hard enough he'll come with us and point out our next step. Aside from me learning [Springwind].”

Lady Blood Claw smiled. “Level those pacts, they seem to be helping you remember.”

With their plans set, Corvayne and LBC started walking into the bar, wading past the first tables into a rainbow of figures waiting to sell their services.