41 Knowledge and Experience

After hearing Eliza claim to have been in the same Party as his sister, Linnaeus' mind completely blanked out. He suddenly felt like he was in a dream or, more specifically, a nightmare beyond any other...

By the time Linnaeus returned to his senses, he was cradling his head with both hands as, for reasons beyond his awareness, a trickle of blood was trailing from his nose. He didn't know how to describe what he was feeling in this instant as, beyond rage and sadness, it felt like 'nothingness' had taken root at the very core of his existence.

Eliza could only bite her bottom lip as she watched Linnaeus anguish before her. After hearing about his past, she felt very empathetic towards his suffering. She could tell that, more than anything else, he cared deeply about his sister. Knowing she was no inside the Tower, it must have devastated him to a degree she couldn't even comprehend.

Seeing that Linnaeus wasn't likely to speak any time soon, Eliza lowered her head and, in a somber tone, muttered, "I'm sorry...I just thought you should know..."

Hearing Eliza's words, Linnaeus turned to meet her gaze and, seeing she looked extremely sorry for what she had done, he felt a pang of guilt. In truth, he should be thanking her for the information as, if he had returned to the outside world without knowing the truth, it would have been too late to do anything about it.

To calm himself, Linnaeus ran his fingers through his hair as he leaned back against the wall of the den and whispered, "You don't need to apologize...thank you for telling me. Now I have even more reasons to return to the Tower and continue my climb...haaaa..."

Eliza winced slightly in response to Linnaeus' words as, for the past few days, she had suspected that it was impossible to leave the Crucible of Souls. Since she didn't want to dash the last bit of his hope, she decided to keep her speculation to herself. After all, there was still a chance they would be able to leave so it would be thoughtless to argue against the possibility.

Linnaeus hadn't missed Eliza's reaction but, as he couldn't determine why she had reacted as such, he also decided to let matters lie. Right now, it was more important to come up with a plan, not just for this Floor, but all Floors to come.

For the better part of twenty minutes, complete silence reigned within the dark den until Linnaeus inhaled a deep breath and said, "I need to become much stronger...we also need to recruit more members to our Party. With our Blessings and attribute allocation, we need someone who can block enemies from the front and someone that specializes in attacks from a distance..."

Being the more experienced between them, Eliza gave a curt nod before offering a semblance of a smile as she explained, "From what I have seen, it is usually better to have two Vanguard units, one specialist ranged attacker, and someone to protect them. If I'm not wrong, you're intending to fill the roll of our Party's second frontline unit...I don't think this is wise. You should continue to polish your Skills in [Assassination] and [Stealth] further. Once you reach LV50 in [Stealth], it gives you a brief period of invisibility that can give you an edge against opponents with lower [Perception]. At higher proficiency, some claim it will allow you to become permanently invisible until someone reveals your position..."

Hearing Eliza's explanation, Linnaeus couldn't help but agree with her. He really wasn't much of a frontline fighter so, rather than find someone that can support at a distance, he might as well take up the role himself. At the very least, he could be the person protecting the backline so, if he wanted to take Eliza's advice into consideration, they needed two Vanguards...

After thinking for a few moments, Linnaeus pulled out his hand-drawn map for Eliza to see. It was a jumbled mess that was nearly impossible to read but it was still better than nothing.

Though it might trigger Eliza's suspicion, Linnaeus showed her the locations of each other person he had tracked on the Floor and gave her a brief overview of their habits, character, and Blessings. Since she had more experience than him, he wanted to have her input before deciding whether or not he should try and recruit any of them.

As could be expected, Eliza frowned slightly when she noticed an area on the map that indicated her own habitat but, remembering how cautious Linnaeus was about entering his own den, she credited it to him being an amazing Scout. She could teach him the basics of [Drawing] so that, in the future, Linnaeus would be their trusted with gathering information for their entire Party.

Of the candidates Linnaeus mentioned, Eliza was drawn to two in particular. This included the man with the Blessing that allowed him to absorb the properties of anything he touched as there was a fair chance he had the [Adaptation] or [Beast King] Blessings. Considering he was in the Crucible of Souls, the odds were in favor of the former as, even outside of the Tower, the [Beast King] Blessing was considered one of the strongest.

The second person Eliza took an interest in was none other than the girl with the ability to produce and manipulate water as, while she may not be suitable as a core member of their Party, it was never a bad thing to have a source of freshwater. In a setting where they had to hide away for long periods of time, she effectively gave them unlimited sustainability so long as they could resist hunger pangs.

All of this was secondary, however, to the fact that, at later levels, most water-related Blessings had the ability to treat wounds and heal other people. It wasn't nearly as strong as other forms of healing but, with how rare such Blessings were, it wasn't uncommon for most Companies to have at least a few people with water-elemental Blessings.

Linnaeus hadn't known about the ability for water-elemental Blessings to heal wounds so he was a little surprised by the revelation. Fortunately, Eliza took pity on him and explained that, prior to entering the Tower, she was also unaware of this. This was due to the fact that, at the very least, it required a person to reach LV50 in their Blessing for such effects to appear.

After hearing Eliza's explanation, Linnaeus couldn't help but release a sigh as he remarked, "I wish I had something like a compendium of every Blessing...not knowing what other people are capable of makes me uncomfortable."

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Eliza giggled in response to Linnaeus' complaint, earning her a look of blame from the pale-haired boy. She didn't take this to heart, however, and instead leaned forward slightly as she informed, "It isn't impossible to obtain information about the Blessings of others. Once you reach the 10th Floor of the Tower, there is a massive settlement with hundreds of millions of people. So long as you have enough Aether, you can always purchase the information from the Explorer's Guild. You can even purchase information about other people, though it is a little more costly."

Linnaeus wasn't really surprised by Eliza's words, as information brokers were very common within the slums. Still, it was an important piece of information and, seeing how willing she was to talk about other Floors, he decided to ask her about the challenges she underwent. He also wanted to ask about his sister but, considering how Eliza behaved previously, part of him didn't want to know. All that really mattered was, regardless of what had happened, he would now do everything in his power to catch up to his sister...

Since she had been wanting someone to talk to for quite a while now, Eliza had no problem sharing everything she knew with Linnaeus. This included information about the challenges from the 4th to the 9th Floor and, more importantly, information about the various Guilds and Organizations he had to be aware of beyond the 10th.

Among the information revealed by Eliza, Linnaeus learned that the first actual exit wasn't on the 10th Floor, but the 20th. From the moment you entered the 11th Floor, you were essentially stuck trying to climb until you reached the 20th as it was impossible to backtrack after you reached one of the 'safe zones'. The only reason the major Guilds and Organizations had power in the lower Floors was due to the fact that their members or, more specifically, their offspring, would have to start their climb just like anyone else. This allowed them to continually recycle personnel and maintain their influence on lower Floors.

It was indeed possible for people to rear children within the Tower but, just like those born in the outside, they suffered similar restrictions. The only real difference was, compared to those that were born outside the Tower, they had a considerable edge in the information department. Fortunately, the Tower seemed to take this into consideration so, when such individuals began their climb, they often ended up in clutches comprised entirely of other tower-born Fledglings.

The most important thing Linnaeus learned from Eliza was, as could be expected, the Eight Heavenly Families had also built up their influence in the Tower. It was more accurate to say that, if you were born outside of the Tower, you were actually a branch family member. The only way to become an official member of the main family was to reach the 50th Floor as, prior to that, you are just another inconsequential entity that served no purpose other than keeping order and finding capable recruits on the lower floors.

Linnaeus also learned that there were two boards on the 10th Floor, one showing a person's overall ranking in the Tower while the other showed their ranking compared to others of the same Class. It included the names of every person that had reached the 10th Floor and beyond, without exception. This was a method people used to recruit other Party members and build up their own team to try and challenge the dangers on higher floors. After all, it was easier to recruit people around the same Rank as yourself while, in some situations, those with greater ambition actively tried to recruit those in higher positions.

One of the most important features of these boards is that it showed the highest floor cleared by an individual so, if you were searching for someone, it was possible to, at the very least, determine their approximate location. The only problem with this was, much like the planar world of Lumen, the size and scale of floors beyond the 10th increased exponentially. According to the rumors that Eliza had heard, the 20th Floor actually had several Kingdoms spread out, regardless of the fact that a 'reset' would occur every thousand years or so, forcing people to either leave the Tower or move to higher floors.

Though it was important information, Linnaeus didn't particularly care about the groups vying for power against each other. He was more interested in the fact that, if he could reach the 10th Floor, he would be able to determine the approximate location of his sister. With this information, he just needed to reach the same Floor or, if searching for her proved to be a problem, he could try and wait for her on the 20th.

The only thing that troubled Linnaeus was how Saht would react when she reached the 10th Floor and saw that his name was not present. She would undoubtedly still wait for him but, knowing her, she was likely to do something drastic if he kept her waiting for too long. It was also possible that she had found allies of her own so, after a while, she would either have to part ways with them or continue her climb after realizing his sister was inside of the Tower...

Knowing that the two people he cared about even more than his own life were climbing the Tower, Linnaeus felt he couldn't just continue to idle about. The Tower seemed to actually reward those who fought against the odds and climbed faster so, while it was better to shore up his foundation, he just didn't have the time to do so. Instead, he would need to find ways to fight against enemies stronger than himself and, no matter how difficult the challenge before him, he would have to surmount them all...he had to...