The Orphanage that William Oh grew up in literally had to expand in order to contain his greatness, adding rooms and extra land. By the time he set out on his adventures, the orphanage had added two stories, acres of orchard and a small industrial juicer.

Jason Salazar

Will busted out of the Bone Mountain fortress at top speed. The priests even threw a few fireballs after him to sell it.

Will hadn’t been outside the Tower in years by this point, so he took some time to visit Ashwood, speeding over to his hometown just slowly enough to not break the air.

The world outside The Tower seemed…so much smaller than the inside. From his height near the stars, he could nearly see the edge of the world as he flew.

The stone sky and metal stars reflecting the heat of The Tower felt…unnatural to Will now. It begged questions that he had never considered before. If the sky was stone, then what was beyond it? Why did they rely on The Tower for the light and heat of an entire world?

What was it that Kincaid said? A sinking life raft?

The land passed beneath him at a steady clip, and Will arrived in Ashwood only a few minutes later, his feet touching down on the sandy soil of Ashwood, just outside of Leon's general store.

“You looking for supplies? Toiletries?” Leon asked as Will approached the counter. He glanced over Will’s Relics, which practically hummed with power outside The Tower. “You’re not gonna get any better kit in my shop.”

The man who’d sold Will his Greater Sting Ring didn’t look much different. Shorter, maybe. The stocky man with the salt-and-pepper hair had some Resistance, and it’d only been about…Gods, five years?

Will on the other hand must’ve looked drastically different, because there was no light of recognition in the general store manager’s eyes.

“Crackers and honeyberry jam.” Will said, leaning on the counter. If there was anything Will had learned Climbing the Tower, it was that sometimes you would be willing to commit murder for some jam.

The crackers were just a means to convey the jam to his face.

I remember this countertop being a lot taller, Will thought, measuring the counter against his waist.

“Here you go.” Leon said, placing a wax-paper box of crackers and a jar of dark purple jam on the counter. “That’ll be six copper pieces.”

Will pursed his lips.

“I don’t have any coins that small. Do you take ivory?” Will asked, producing an ivory coin.

“I’m sure as abyss not gonna break it for you, so unless you buy a lot of jam, the answer’s no.”

“Well, how much jam do you have? And are you still making that pemmican with the berries and pepper?”

Leon frowned, doing a double-take at Will’s face.

“…Will?” He asked.

“Leon?” Will replied.

The stocky shopkeep lunged across the counter and dragged Will into a hug.

Will could’ve dodged, but chose to endure it.

“Gods, we thought you were dead!”

“I mean, you should’ve heard stories about me.” Will said around Leon’s arm.

“Those are the kind of stories people make up about a dead man!”

“Hmm…agree to disagree,” Will said as Leon let him go. “Is Gertrude still kicking?”

“Of course. That woman made it to the sixth Floor, so she’ll outlive most of the village. How long will you be staying?” Leon asked, eyes glittering with excitement.

“I can’t leave my Stronghold unsupervised for too long, so it won’t be long.”

“Ahahaha!” Leon broke into a guffaw before doing a double-take at Will’s expression.

“You. Are a Lord?”

“You should’ve heard stories about that.” Will said.

“Oh, like the ones where you ripped Lumesh’s jaw off and used it as a boomerang? Did that happen too?”

“Alright, that’s fair.” Will said, holding up a hand to forestall any further sass from the shopkeep. “Being a Lord is surprisingly easy with the right support and a knack for murder. Apparently it’s a natural talent of mine.”

“Sometimes I wish you’d just been a baker, kid. I’ve only ever taken a single life, and it was enough to turn me off the Path of a Climber for good. Telling me you’ve got a knack for it…”

“Eh…” Will grunted. “I mostly try to keep it to people who try to kill me first.”

“Mostly?” Leon asked.

“There have been some people who tried to steal from me. In The Tower, stealing is nearly as bad as murder, since without supplies, people die.”

“Alright, enough of this talk of death and murder.” Leon said, waving his hand as if to clear the air between them. “What Floor is your Stronghold on and were you serious about spending a whole Ivory on jam?”

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“Tenth Floor, and yeah, I could go for a hundred gold worth of jam.” That would be roughly a small shed’s worth of jam. It could keep Will’s sweet tooth satisfied for weeks. Maybe even months.

“That being said, would you be willing to sell some seeds for your desert honeyberries?” Will asked, realizing that there was an opportunity here to improve the booze and sweets of his Stronghold.

Maybe I can get some bees and beekeepers, too. Then we’ll have our own jam.

“You want me to sell you the seeds to the plants that I have been relying on for forty years? That my grandfather carefully transplanted from the frozen wastes and carefully nurtured and bred over decades to thrive in the desert? You want me to just sell them to you?” Leon demanded, seemingly offended. That usually meant that he was willing to sell.

“Are there seeds in the jam?” Will asked.

“No living ones, for exactly that reason.”

What are the odds he’s lying and I could just fish seeds out of the jam?

Leon gave him a calculating stare. “What’s the Tenth Floor like?”

“It’s a desert. A lot like here, but magical.” Will said.

“Hmm…and you promise the berries you grow won’t make their way past the 5th Floor?” Leon demanded.

“I won’t sell them below the 5th Floor, but I can’t control what people will do with them afterwards.” Will replied.

“Fine. An unsterilized bag of my grandpa’s desert honeyberries for one ivory.”

“Sure.” Will said, truly not caring about the price.

“I better not catch anyone else growing these outside The Tower.” Leon said.

“And however much crackers and jam this’ll buy.” Will said, dropping another ivory coin onto the counter.

“…How many of those do you have?” Leon asked.

Will glanced down at the ivory coins on the counter and did some rough estimations.

Probably enough to destabilize the economy of the Ring.

“Enough.” Will said.

“I’ll get a cart. Where are you gonna store these?”

“In my hands.” Will said, making the armor on his Phantom Hands visible so that they could wave at Leon.

Their storage capacity wasn’t amazing, at only a bit more than the volume of a human body, but they shrank anything that was put into Dimensional Storage, which meant Will could actually carry much more than that.

The ‘human body’ metric was just the size limit of things that could go in.

Will could carry enough small baggage that he was beginning to actually have potential for transport. Unfortunately, no one was willing to hire a level 65 Advanced Class to carry baggage for them.

Too bad. Could’ve had a bright career ahead of me. Could’ve given up this Lord side-gig and found steady work.

“Tell you what. It’ll take a couple hours to cart all the jam from my house back to here. You go visit Gertrude while I get that done.” Leon said as he went through his notebook and began tallying jars of jam.

“…I don’t wanna.”

“If she hears you were in town and didn’t visit her, she will kill me. I’m not exaggerating.” Leon said. “That woman will slit my throat.”

“Uuugh.” Will groaned and nodded, leaving Leon with a farewell and trudging down the dirt road to Gertrude’s orphanage.

Ashwood was mostly empty at this time of year. The entire economy catered to rookies buying supplies for the Hunting grounds and as a result, the dirt road through town was basically empty, with just Will, a couple dogs sniffing at him, and a half-dozen children sprinting at full speed while screaming at the top of their lungs, adults nowhere to be seen.

Feels like home.

The orphanage came into view and Will froze in his tracks. The single-floor building had ben replaced with a three-story mansion, with a garden and a gate.

Or maybe not.

On the other side of the gate were another half-dozen children covered in mud, sprinting at full speed and screaming at the top of their lungs.

But these poor orphans were wearing finer clothes than the ones outside.

And a wrought iron gate? Seriously?

Will peered up at the gate, spotting a placard.

“The historical site where the legend William oh was raised by the saint, Gertrude?” Will read aloud.

Where does she get off calling herself a saint? Will thought, hopping over the gate.

The kids scattered, screaming as Will walked towards the entrance, stopping in his tracks as he noticed an old woman in the garden, wearing an oversized hat and coveralls.

No…

“Gertrude? What happened to your wimple?” As long as Will had known her, the old woman had never dressed in anything but strict Graneshian Nun attire.

“Will, is it?” Gertrude asked, rubbing her lower back as she straightened to look at him, recognizing him instantly, perhaps having more experience with putting names to the faces of aging children. “I was excommunicated.”

“Ah.” Will glanced up at the three-story mansion, spotting maids bustling down the halls through the windows. “I take it you got the money I sent?”

“Sure did.”

“I couldn’t help but notice you made the place I grew up into a tourist attraction.” Will said, gesturing to the mansion in the distance.

“Sure did.” Gertrude repeated with a grin. “It covered the gaps when the church stopped subsidizing us…and then some.”

The ex-nun wiped her gnarled hands on her roughspun pants and held her arms out.

“C’mere.” She said, gesturing for Will to come give her a hug.

“Hmm…” Will’s eyes narrowed, deciding whether he wanted to get covered in dirt.

“William Oh, you come here and give me a hug right now!” Gertrude demanded, the woman’s familiar tone forced Will’s legs into motion and when he regained control of them, he was already trapped in the skeletal monster’s bony embrace.

“I’m so glad you’re still alive!” Gertrude said, devolving into un-Gertrude-like blubbering while Will tried to find some way to squirm away.

“So…how’s everyone been?” Will asked.

“Oh, fine. Marissa got married to the baker’s apprentice. Everyone else moved away after they got their Classes.”

“That poor man.” Will muttered, shaking his head.

Gertrude smacked Will upside the head, having about the same effect as if she’d smacked a steel statue, eliciting a performative ‘ow’ from Will.

“You’re at the age where you should know better than to talk shit about girls just because you didn’t get along with them when you were a child.”

“That’s fair.” Will admitted.

“So I’m only in town for the afternoon. I’m headed right back up to my Stronghold on the Tenth Floor. Did you need any money before I go?” Will asked. It didn’t look like she needed money, but after running a Stronghold, Will had come to understand that looks could be deceiving, and there was always something to spend money on.

“How much you got?” Gertrude asked with a cunning expression.

“Enough.”

After a bit of haggling, Will left Gertrude with three ivory pieces to last her until Will visited again. Which might never happen.

She brought him inside and Will discovered that their sandwiches were made with actual meat, and white bread! They had a magical chest that kept the food from spoiling. Inside that chest were several glass carafes of fruit juice. A luxury that Will hadn’t tried until he reached the 5th Floor.

Out the back of the orphanage was acres of desert-hardy fruit trees, which was where they got the juice. During the busy season, they sold to Leon, who sold it to the Climbers passing through on the way back up into the Tower.

“Is this orphanage actually making a profit?” Will asked, looking out the rear window of the kitchen at the orchard.

“I don’t have to pay the children for their labor.” Gertrude said by way of explanation.

“And here I thought you’d become soft.” Will mused.

“Like Abyss.” Gertrude muttered with a scowl.

Will gave Gertrude another hug and said his farewells, returning to Leon, who met him with a bag of berries and a shed’s worth of jam and crackers. Leon even tossed in some soap and a shaving kit for free.

Will found himself not wanting to leave, but as the heat slowly left the Tower, he knew he had to go.

So many things needed to be done.