W hen the door opened and the next person strolled in, I had no doubt in my mind it was our teacher.
Finley Rava was older than I looked. Older than the battle-worn mother type, too. He wore broken in battle leathers and a black cloak. There was no school crest on him.
There was a sword strapped to his waist. Other than that, he moved in a way that suggested every part of himself could be used as a weapon.
Even the way his eyes scanned us — wait, what is that?
His blue eyes had a haziness about them. As if they were clouded with a bit of mist.
Even though he met my gaze for a hard second before moving to the next student, I had no doubt in my mind that this man was at least partially blind.
He dropped a leather carrier’s bag on the teacher’s desk below and said, “Good morning, students. I’m Finley Rava. You will call me simply ‘Rava.’ Is that satisfactory?”
A chorus of yes, answered him.
His eyes narrowed sharply. “I said, is that satisfactory?”
Everyone, Clove and Jam included, raised their voices to give their assent more clearly.
“Good,” he said, returning to removing the papers from his bag.
“You’re here because you’ve indicated on your forms that you have an interest in graduating from the Tower Guild Academy with an official Adventurer’s License that will allow you to join any guild, including ours, and beat the Tower.
“If you’re strong enough, of course.”
He finished sorting his papers, crossed his arms, and scanned us once more.
“By the time you graduate, you will have formed a party of at least three people and will likely have beaten a handful of the Tower’s levels. Gaining the treasures it has to offer. Facing your worst fears in the meantime.
“You there, in the armor with the shield. What is your name, and what do you know of the Tower?”
The shieldmaiden from The Night Owl straightened and cleared her throat.
“Yes, Rava. My name is Aisling, but please call me Ash. The Tower formed centuries ago from a mana spring, as is the way of all Towers in Ria.
“It is constantly overflowing with power, usually in the form of monsters. If we were to ignore the Towers, they would eventually spill their monsters into the land.”
Rava held up a hand. “We’ll start there. Thank you. You are correct, however, here’s what you do not know about our particular Tower, and why it is the most fearsome in all of Ria.”
He paused.
I wondered if it was for dramatic effect, because it certainly came off that way.
“If you tilt a scale too far, the contents will spill over. Unless someone places equal weight on the other side of the scale to regain the balance.
“Typically, the Towers in Ria do not have a way to rebalance themselves. This is why they spill over, spreading monsters into the world.
“Amarantha’s Tower is different. It’s the only one that has a city around it. Why?” He pointed at Jam, who was raising her hand. “Name and answer.”
Jam said proudly, “Please call me Jam! Amarantha is the only city that has a Tower because the Tower doesn’t spill out monsters. No matter what!
“That’s why the city formed around it. It provides a central boost to our economy, which helped Amarantha grow into the strongest city in Ria.”
Rava nodded, but he didn’t appear pleased with the answer.
I leaned forward. There was something more to what Jam just said, wasn’t there? Something disturbing.
I had a very bad feeling about this.
Rava said, “You’re right. In the last two hundred years, our Tower hasn’t released a single monster. It’s done something that no Tower has ever before. It balances itself.”
A few students whispered to one another. Others didn’t react at all, likely not finding this information very impressive.
But I do. This is interesting. But how does the Tower do it?
If there was a wellspring of light mana feeding into the Tower, and it didn’t need to rely on adventurers to balance it, then it must be —
Damn. I think I have an idea.
Rava said, “The Tower has a larger than normal mana spring feeding it. Larger than any other Tower in Ria. Not even our thriving city and booming Tower tourism is enough to naturally balance the Tower.
“We don’t currently know how such an overflowing wellspring manages itself. However, a disturbing pattern has begun to show itself. One that I have a duty to reveal to you students.”
The silence that fell over the class was so complete, I could nearly hear Clove’s pounding heart beside me.
She reached over and threaded her fingers into mine.
I held her back, circling my thumb over her wrist, hoping to soothe her.
Rava was satisfied with the solemnity of our reactions. He said, “The Tower has been growing steadily stronger and stronger at an exponential rate.”
Clove’s grip turned bone-breaking. “Oh, gods.”
Rava didn’t pause. “I defeated the Tower around thirty years ago, and from the stories I hear from adventurers, I’m not certain my same party could have done it today.
“If the Tower continues growing at this rate, and the levels become harder and harder to pass, eventually they will become impossible to defeat. As it stands, not a single party has beaten the entire Tower these past five years.”
“So, we keep crushing it down!” an increasingly familiar voice said. The blond mage with anger issues sprang to his feet.
He looked ready to jump into battle. “We beat the living hell out of that Tower with so much force that we rebalance it ourselves!”
The last came out as a violent yell, much to the dismay of his surrounding seat mates.
The shieldmaiden, Ash, leaned away from him.
Rava addressed the man. “Your name?”
“Rhys.”
“Well, Rhys, to achieve what you suggest, we’d need twice as many adventurers in the Tower, even on top of the hundreds of thousands who come every year. Additionally, there is no evidence this would help the situation.”
Rhys sat, glaring.
The demi with white wings and golden hair raised her hand, and when Rava nodded at her, she asked, “Hi, sir. My name’s Cazima. Nice to meet you. Love the creepy cloak, by the way. Definitely matches your eyes in a good way. Oooh, and that scowl is just perfect. Never change, Rava. Never change.
“Now, I have a question. What happens if the Tower keeps getting more and more powerful?”
Rava ignored the strange comments and answered flatly. “We can only take the other towers of Ria as an examplar. Monsters will be released into the city, wreaking havoc and destroying us all.”
Rava might have been guessing, but I didn’t have to. I knew exactly what would happen.
Right now, the Tower was balancing itself.
Nature always found a way to do so.
Its light mana was so powerful, the tower had sought for and found a way to balance, a place it could pour its excess off into.
Nobody understood that it was doing so by ripping a hole into the Underworld’s void.