Dario had planned to enter the second floor in a blaze of glory. Bright illusions should have been surrounding him like blooming flowers as he laughed a champion’s laugh, arms to his sides and his chest puffed out. The roar of the crowd should have been unmatched, drowning out the sad wails of those who grieved his departure.

  Instead, he was the one doing the wailing. He was still down on his knees on the rising platform, his horrified face held in his hands. The Floor of Sweat and Suffering? That sounded like the kind of name a sadist would come up with.

  It was a cruel attack on everything that was sacred to him. Images of endless training passed before his mind’s eye; he could see himself running in loops and performing repetitive exercises, sweat streaming down his body as relentless instructors screamed at him. There wouldn’t even be a proper meal afterwards, would there?

  “Noo…” he groaned, voice muffled as he pressed his hands into his face. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. After that craphole of a floor they fell into, this was meant to be a happy adventure. If he had to undergo torturous training every day, he might as well go back to the damn parasites.

  He was too distracted to see the Mon coming up, but when they passed through, a strange tingling sensation passed through his body, feeling faintly familiar but hard to place. Before he could process what was going on, he was assaulted by an explosion of color and sound.

  Contrary to the open square they’d departed from, they came out in what felt like the center of a busy city, buildings built nearly right up to the edge of the Mon, with bright signs plastered on every storefront. Around them, the muscular bodies of cultivators were pressing in behind tall fences, built to keep them from stepping onto the Mon and falling through. Many of the cultivators themselves held even more bright signs, all of them clamouring for attention.

  “The Divine Biceps Sect has the best equipment for-”

  “Come to Shikona’s Pill Shop for the best prices!”

  “Join the Thousand Squats Gym and build Coral-grade legs in record time!”

  “Aniki, aniki, over here!”

  Everywhere, light artefacts shone with bright, gaudy colors in an attempt to draw people’s eye. But to Dario’s vision, even the air itself was thick with color, the ambient Ki much stronger here than it was in the Basement. The aura of the air was dense enough in places that it manifested as a thin mist, making the bright colors of the artefact signs spread out and blend together like splotches of paint in water.

  All of that put together was enough to blind him.

  “Gah!” he cried out, shielding his eyes with his forearm before drawing all Ki away from them. It took him a long moment to get used to the bright lights, pulling his arm a bit further away to give his eyes time to adjust. Still, he was frowning and squinting as Nika put a hand on his shoulder.

  “Are you alright? I know it can be a bit much for first timers.”

  “What is this place? It’s nothing like Endanshi.”

  He squinted past the masses of people to see lines of stores, each one with flashy displays and sign spinners outside shouting at people to come in. There were so many light artefacts in use that even without any Ki in his eyes, the scene was blinding. As he watched, workers were pushing the crowd aside to lower sturdy wooden bridges that connected to the floating platforms.

  “Endanshi is a poor baseline to measure the rest of Tenjou by. I believe Veinora is at least ten times its size, and the third floor contains more impressive cities, though they may not quite match the size of the population. Ah, I see the delegations have arrived. Shall we?”

  Several groups of armed cultivators were clearing a path through the crowds. From the uniforms they wore and the flags they proudly carried in the center of their formation, displaying what he figured was their clan crest, at least six clans were present here. Some wore red, others silver or blue, but all were led by impressive cultivators who made a straight line to whichever platform had brought their clansmen up.

  Nika took his hand and pulled him up and toward the crowd, stopping in front of a squat man whose shoulders were broad enough that Dario thought he’d be able to fit two people on each one. The man looked to be in his fifties, boasting an impressive beard, the color of eggshell, just like his hair.

  “Welcome back, Young Lady! And a warm welcome too, to our young brothers and sisters. Congratulations all, for your ascension to Amber! I am sure this is but the beginning of an impressive journey for all of you.”

  As he spoke, Dario noticed the man’s teeth were a deep black, looking as if they were made of stone.

  Nika gave a short bow. “Greetings, Elder Ishikata. My thanks for meeting us here.”

  While the other elders began to give speeches, loudly announcing accomplishments that some of the fresh Ambers must have achieved during their hunt for a Koto, the Houjo elder simply nodded, then promptly turned around and led them out again.

  Unfortunately, the lines of armed Houjo guards were not enough to scare the hawking cultivators. People waved for his attention, some even going so far as to reach through the line of guards to try and grab his hand.

  “Aniki! The Pillbound Gymrats-”

  “Aniki! Over here!”

  “Hey aniki, I can give you a good price on some fasting pills!”

  Dario frowned. These brawny cultivators were already starting to annoy him. Most of them wore short pants and tunics that barely had any fabric to them, revealing muscled bodies. Nika would fit right in, except that these cultivators had none of her reserve.

  “Why is everyone calling me aniki?” he asked, sticking close to Nika’s side as they marched through the streets.

  “It means ‘older brother’ in the old tongue, but here it’s used as an informal yet respectful form of address for men.”

  “The cultivators have congregated around the Mon today because they know of the Ascension ceremony,” she continued. “They are trying to convince fresh Ambers to join their sects, or purchase their wares. You will receive more attention than most, firstly because you do not look like a noble, and secondly because… well, frankly, you look like you’re in need of pills or training sessions. Or both.”

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  They passed through busy streets lined with what he had assumed were simple shops, but he soon noticed that the buildings they passed were most often one of three things: a pill shop, a gym, or an eatery. It was easy to tell which was which; in case you missed the brightly-lit artefact signs, the sign spinner in front of the store would be sure to scream it at you.

  “High protein meals for only two pearls! Get your protein here!”

  “Hey, aniki! Try our fat-burning pills, they’ll get rid of that belly in two weeks!”

  Dario glared at the sign spinner, but they were marching so fast that there was no time to pause. As he spotted the twentieth pill shop with hawkers promising instant ‘gains’, his eyebrows lifted, a bit of hope returning to his eyes. “So there are pills to speed up the process?”

  But that spark of hope was quickly snuffed out as Nika’s lips thinned. “I do not recommend trying that. Most of those pills do not do what the salesmen claim, and others will do more damage than good. But you have nothing to worry about,” she said, slapping him on the back as her lips curved up again. “The Houjo Clan has excellent trainers. That belly of yours will melt like a candle in front of a hearth.”

  He clutched his arm protectively around his stomach as he glared at her. “Nobody’s touching my belly.”

  Nika ignored his grumbling, seeming unusually content as she marched with her chin lifted high and a sly smile on her face. They marched on, keeping the pillar to their right side, at a pace that was closer to a jog than a walk. There were a few less people on the streets as they made their way deeper in, though there were still plenty of shops.

  Dario leaned in close to Nika to whisper a question. “What’s with the elder’s teeth?”

  “He is Coral,” she answered in a low voice. When he gave her a confused look, she added, “It’s his Sigil.”

  Dario’s frown only grew, so she let out a sigh before explaining properly. “A Sigil is an external feature of Ki which first emerges at Coral. It is directly related to a person’s Kaku and the type of Ki they use. It grows even more pronounced at Opal, though with training it is possible for Opals to suppress it, which most of them do. I have always thought that it was an effect of the Ki’s concentration, but my teachers refused to talk about it for fear of giving away hints to the requirement for Opal.”

  “A Sigil huh? So this elder’s Kaku is in his teeth? He’s a biter?” He bit at the air, teeth clacking together.

  “The bones,” Nika corrected with a smile. “It is not uncommon for Houjo cultivators, though it’s often located in only a single area of the skeleton. I suspect Elder Ishikata’s Kaku covers his entire head, but it is uncouth to inquire about such things.”

  He was beginning to realize exactly what a lousy teacher JeeJee had been when it came to teaching him about the world. To be fair, he probably hadn’t shown any interest, but looking back, the old man had only ever cared about puzzles and exercises to improve his Ki manipulation. Yet he’d never even mentioned something as basic as a Sigil, which, come to think of it, shouldn’t JeeJee have had one? Ever since the incident with the guards, he assumed the old man was Coral, but if he was suppressing his Sigil he’d have to be Opal at least. He’d have to ask about it next time he visited, though he wasn’t expecting any clear answer from his shifty old teacher.

  They marched on for a while through mist-covered streets, Dario trying to bring light Ki back into his eyes bit by bit, curious what the elder would look like, but the ambient aura still made it painfully bright. Even the light aura that came from the pillar seemed to collect into streams of mist, mixing together with the auras of the air and wood and stone into a multi-layered fog that hovered like a haze over most of this floor.

  They passed a few large, fenced compounds which had flags proudly displaying clan crests. Clearly, the presence of clans and sects was much greater here than in the Basement, which he asked Nika about.

  “Out of all the floors under the Ceiling, this one has the most cultivators. It is easy enough for people to join in groups and hunt a Koto down in the Basement, but this floor presents the first true bottleneck. The vast majority are simply aiming to reach Coral and join a respectable clan, so that they can live out the rest of their long lives in comfort. Switching clans later on is rare, so this floor is considered an important recruiting ground, even for the Great Clans. Failing to pick out enough talented individuals here will lead to weakness in the future. To that end, many clans and sects run tournaments or tests of some kind. I believe there are over a dozen arenas, just in Veinora.”

  “Huh. But how is reaching Coral much harder than Amber? They all look pretty fit already and they don’t even have to hunt down a Reijuu here. All they’d have to do is train, which any idiot is capable of.”

  “It is not as simple as you may think. In truth, there is more nuance to reaching Coral than simply reaching the body composition requirements I mentioned before. A well-trained Talc who meets those ratios would not instantly jump to Coral upon integrating a Koto. It requires a particular kind of training, which involves channeling Ki through the muscles while performing physical exercise until well past the point of muscle failure. Many fail to keep this up.”

  That brought his eyebrows up and hope returned once again, stronger this time. He’d thought it was purely a matter of physical training and conditioning the body, which would be hard to find good shortcuts for. But if there was Ki involved… Well, then a whole world of shenanigans would open up, wouldn’t it? Ki could do just about anything, if you used it well enough.

  Finally, the group came to a stop in front of what had to be the Houjo residence, though it was more like a fortress. It was not even an average fortress; high walls of dark stone that slanted subtly forward so they’d be even harder to climb, thin holes through which arrows and techniques could be launched, well defended look-out towers positioned so that all corners were watched by multiple guards from different angles. Sneaking in here would not be easily done, not least because the residence seemed to be partially built into a mountain.

  Behind the walls and towers, stone sloped upwards into a strangely smooth mountainside, reaching nearly up to the crystal ceiling at its peak. It was hard to make out how far it stretched, but certainly deep enough to defend the rear of the residence. As if that was not enough, the gate was not even a normal gate, instead made of some mechanism of interlocking stone that needed several plates to first be slid inwards so that the massive block of black stone could be lifted up from the inside by a dozen brawny cultivators.

  Inside, despite only minimal ornaments, the place still felt grand. High ceilings and textured walls with the occasional pieces of furniture, all fitting together in a way that felt not empty, but calming. The staff gave him odd looks as he waved and winked at them, until Nika asked them to clear the halls as she led him to his room.

  He whistled appreciatively as he took in the luxurious bed and wallcoverings, grinning back at Nika with wide eyes. “This is just for me? Or do I have to share?”

  “All yours.”

  He laughed as he tested out the bed and ran his fingers over the soft tapestry. “If I’d known being friends with a noble had such great benefits, I would have found some earlier.”

  “Yes, I’m sure they’d all be waiting in line to take you in.”

  “A joke? At my expense? Are you this rude to all your guests, Lady Houjo?”

  Nika snorted. “Only to the ones with no sense of propriety.”

  Dario chuckled as he let himself fall back to the bed, arms spread wide. “I don’t even know what that means. Ahh, but I could get used to this.”

  “Well, you better not get too used to it.” Her voice sounded serious again, so he pushed himself up on his elbows to look at her. “Our first training session will be tomorrow morning, at red crest. You should know that the standard timespan for young talents to clear this floor is six months. I intend to achieve it in half the time. It will be three months of intense training, during which I will also aim to leave an impact on our clan business here.”

  Dario didn’t comment, letting himself fall back onto the bed as Nika left the room, staring at the ceiling of rough, beige stone. Instead of another mystery to solve, it felt like he’d been given a sentence. Was it possible for a boy from the humble Belt to turn into a beast of training, matching even the most talented nobles?

  …Maybe. Did he want to?

  “Absolutely fucking not,” he muttered to himself.

  The question then became whether or not he would have a choice.

  One way or another, this floor was going to put his ability to sniff out shortcuts to the test.