Ashwick appeared on the horizon in the early afternoon.

A small village of maybe three hundred people, built around a central square with a stone well and a single inn. Modest houses clustered along unpaved roads. Fields stretched to the south, green and orderly. Hills rolled to the north, dotted with grazing livestock. It was, by any measure, an ordinary frontier settlement.

And to the east, visible from every point in the village, the High-class Tower of Ash rose against the sky.

A towering black spire wreathed in drifting grey ash and faint crimson embers. Its surface resembled scorched stone cracked by glowing red mana veins, pulsing like a heartbeat beneath the rock. Clouds of soot swirled constantly around its upper reaches, blotting out the sky in a permanent twilight of smoke and cinder. Even from a mile away, it radiated an oppressive heat, a dry warmth that pressed against Nathan’s skin even through the Winterhart cloak.

Standing black against the afternoon sky, it looked less like a Tower and more like a monument to something that had already burned.

"Damn," Dillon said quietly. "That’s... not subtle."

"It’s been stable for decades," Elise said, though her voice was thoughtful. "But it needs periodic clearing. The mana buildup has to be released by defeating the monsters inside. If left unchecked too long..."

"It collapses," Garrett finished. "Like the one that destroyed that village."

Elise nodded.

The villagers were used to Climbers. Ashwick existed because of the Tower, its economy built around the parties that came to challenge it, the inns and supply shops and guides who made their living off the steady flow of guild traffic. As the party disembarked from the bus, a few locals glanced their way with mild curiosity. Climbers were a familiar sight here. Not celebrities. Just part of the local ecosystem.

The innkeeper was a stout woman named Marta, her grey hair pulled back in a practical bun, her forearms thick with muscle from decades of hauling supplies. She spotted the Celestial Peak sigils on their uniforms immediately.

"Celestial Peak, eh?" Her voice was warm and rough, like gravel wrapped in flannel. "Good guild. Had some of yours through here a few months back. Party of three. Cleared Floor 7 before extracting, their tank’s summon shattered on a Magma Serpent." She shook her head. "Shame. You aiming for full clear?"

"That’s the plan, ma’am," Nathan said.

Marta whistled low. "Ambitious. No one’s full cleared the Tower of Ash in three years. Last party that tried extracted on Floor 9 with half their summons shattered. Pyre Wyrm on Floor 10 is a monster, literally and figuratively. Hope you’ve got something that can handle that kind of heat."

Her eyes drifted to Nathan’s shoulders, where Mirko and Kuro sat in their small forms... green fur and pink eyes, black fur and white mask-markings.

"Those your summons? Small things." Marta studied them with the appraising eye of someone who’d seen a lot of Climbers come and go. "Hope they’re tougher than they look."

’We are,’ Mirko said through the link, ears twitching with indignation. ’I am a Knight. I have defeated a Dread Knight, a Shadow Wyrm, and a Level 51 Berserker. I am not "small."’

’She will learn,’ Kuro added, dry. ’They always learn.’

Nathan decided not to translate.

---

The inn was modest but comfortable. Two rooms, Nathan and Garrett and Dillon in one, while Elise in the other one. Clean floors, sweeping views of the Tower to the east. Impossible to escape it.

They gathered in the common room as evening settled. Marta’s stew was surprisingly good hearty, spiced, the kind that stuck to your ribs. Dillon had sharpened his katana three times since arriving. Garrett had memorized the floor layout and was reciting enemy types under his breath like a prayer. Elise read and reread the Pyre Wyrm’s boss mechanics, her expression unreadable.

Nathan stepped outside for air.

The Tower of Ash dominated the eastern sky, its black spire silhouetted against the setting sun. Heat shimmers warped the air around its peak. Somewhere inside, ten floors of fire and stone were waiting. Wyrmlings, Magma Serpents, and at the top, the Pyre Wyrm itself. A boss that had shattered parties and broken Climbers.

Mirko hopped onto his shoulder. The evening air was cool, but the Tower’s heat reached even here, a faint warmth on the breeze.

’You’re overthinking again,’ she observed.

Nathan exhaled. "Always."

’About what this time?’

He watched the crimson veins pulse slowly, rhythmically, like a heartbeat. "About how different this is. In the capital, Towers are controlled. Managed. You climb them, clear them, go home. Out here, they’re part of people’s lives. They destroy villages. Create refugees. They’re not just challenges... they’re threats. If we don’t clear this Tower, if the mana buildup gets worse..." He didn’t finish.

’Then we clear it,’ Mirko said. Her voice was steady, certain. ’We make it safer for the people here. That’s what Climbers do. That’s what we are going to do’

Nathan nodded. Towers needed periodic clearing. That was the fundamental truth of this world... the reason Climbers existed at all. Monsters bred in the upper floors. Mana accumulated in the walls. If a Tower went too long without being climbed, the pressure built until something gave. A collapse. A breach. A flood of monsters into the surrounding land. Ashwick depended on parties like theirs to keep the Tower stable. If they failed... if they extracted early, like the party before them... the buildup would continue. Another party would try. And eventually, if enough parties keep failing a full clear, the Tower would take its due. The partial clears can only do so much.

Kuro’s voice joined the link, quiet and certain. ’The Tower will not be the hardest thing we face in the coming weeks. The Elite Class Tower we must eventually challenge. Whatever waits beyond. But this is the first step and We are ready for it.’

Nathan looked at his two summons. Mirko green and steady, Kuro black and watchful. His partners. His family.

"Then let’s take it."

He went back inside.

---

Dawn came the next day.

The party assembled at the Tower of Ash’s entrance, a yawning archway of volcanic stone, its edges rough and sharp as broken glass. Heat radiated from within in visible waves, air shimmering like a mirage. The fire-resistant cloaks gleamed in the morning light, their enchantments already activating, cooling the skin beneath.

Elise’s Frost Golem stood ready, crystalline white stark against the Tower’s black stone. The cold it radiated was a small defiance against the heat, a reminder that ice could exist even here. Dillon’s Cloud Serpent coiled at his shoulders, zapping loose ash motes with tiny sparks. Garrett’s Mad-Sheep Red snorted steam, crimson wool bristling, already adapting to the temperature.

Mirko shifted to humanoid form in a burst of green light, sword drawn, her armor gleaming. Kuro remained in bunny form on Nathan’s shoulder, she would enter combat when needed, but for now she observed. Her black eyes swept the archway, cataloging every detail.

Nathan checked his borrowed bow. Standard guild practice weapon: serviceable, unremarkable, a placeholder until Vex finished his real bow. The grip was wrong. The draw weight too light. But it would have to do.

"Everyone ready?" he asked. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Garrett hefted his mace. "Ready."

"Born ready," Dillon added, katana loose in its sheath. "And flame-resistant now, which is a significant improvement over the last volcano-adjacent situation."

"We’ve never been in a volcano-adjacent situation," Garrett said.

"Then this is a first. Exciting."

"Stay focused," Elise said. Her voice was cool, but an edge lay beneath it... not fear, but intensity. The same focus she’d worn before the Veiled Colosseum. "Floor 1. We don’t know the enemy distribution yet. We adapt as we go. Nathan calls targets. Mirko holds center. Garrett and I cover flanks. Dillon, hit and run.. don’t overextend."

"Wouldn’t dream of it."

"You always dream of it. That’s the problem."

Nathan stepped forward. The heat washed over him immediately, dry, intense, the kind that made lungs ache and eyes water. The Winterhart cloak shimmered, reflecting the worst of it, and the air around him stayed cool enough to breathe.

"Then let’s climb."

He stepped through the archway and the Tower swallowed them whole.