The 10th floor wasn’t as glamorous as other rest floors, but the group admittedly hadn’t experienced very many of them. While the second tier had a more city-focused castle theme, the rest floor was set in a sprawling dining hall filled with open seating at large banquet tables, stone pillars and statues resembling various classes of Climbers, and large braziers on either side along with torches on the wall to provide enough light and ambience that it felt homey and restful.

  Not to mention this was their first time resting on the 10th floor. They had cleared the second tier in only two weeks, completely powering through the floors with only the four of them. Even the ninth floor being the most difficult was manageable with their new abilities and strength, along with items they picked up or traded for along the way.

  Together they sat at a table alone, quietly reading their parchments and discussing their next steps. Landon had a cloak covering his body and thin gloves on his hands. It was a precaution he took after he learned that even bright lights from braziers were harmful to his body.

  It didn’t take them long to decide on what their class upgrades would be for the third tier. Corbyn upgraded to a Berserker, which gave him more benefits coinciding with his mask and reckless fighting style. It was a fairly common option from Barbarian though normally less attractive due to being less careful. He didn’t care about that, though.

  Jane settled on an easy upgrade to Mystic, which was a simple enough expansion of her Witch abilities but gave her even more raw power. That was her intent, after all. It was simple enough. Landon had a similar goal and chose Stalker, which gave him more benefits while fighting under dim light or darkness, just like his mask encouraged. As long as it wasn’t sunny or bright, he was a one man assassin.

  Octavius chose a less forward approach but was still satisfied with Oracle. It was a class built around more protection than outright healing, and gave a benefit where he could provide a small bonus to a near-constant protective field in the form of a shallow but sturdy aura. It was what he needed to keep the headaches away. And he still had healing, of course, though the others were more suited to needing more protection than healing as they learned in the two weeks with the masks.

  Still, that was nothing compared to the true change they discovered after advancing. After reading their parchments, they studied one another closely.

  “Do you know what this could mean?” Corbyn asked. His voice was more normal than before, but still muffled from wearing the mask. It was a clearer tone and not nearly as deep.

  Jane shook her head. “We’ve already been in unknown territory having the masks,” Jane said. She ran a hand up to her mask and felt it. “I’m not sure if anyone will know.”

  “The fourth tier is going to be a bit more of a problem than we thought,” Octavius said. “I don’t like this.”

  Landon nodded. “None of us do, but we’ll manage. We always do. With change comes greater power. At least that much has proven true.”

  The others remained silent, and whether they agreed or not they didn’t share. There was far too much change recently for them to grasp. Too many unknowns. Too much at stake.

  Their masks had changed. It wasn’t the aura, but rather the actual masks themselves. Even the names changed along with their descriptions. The benefits didn’t increase, but the curses did. Much to their concern.

  Landon’s mask became the Mask of the Jackal, and its features grew more like the actual boss they faced, something all of the masks had in common. The ears were more pointy, the nose less pronounced but regal, and the face more angular with a near black color. His curse grew more intense, too, which explained why he needed to be covered even under the light of braziers and torches. Jane’s became the Mask of the Phoenix, growing a large plume off the top of the purple-hued mask with a more focused beak. Corbyn’s was now the Mask of the Minotaur, and it was even more intimidating than before. The horns were more pronounced, the nose more blocky, and there was even a wooden ring set between both nostrils. His body changed from the effect, taking on a seemingly permanent shade of dark brown with a leathery skin that made him look more bovine than human.

  Octavius had it worst of all, just like he claimed before. He had the misfortune of taking off his mask to examine it, and in the few seconds he did he felt such an intense pain in his head and behind his eyes that he dropped his mask and fell to the ground. Jane helped him put the mask back on, but not before noticing his eyes were completely gone. All that was left were empty voids, filled with small magical orbs that slowly swirled and glowed in a multitude of colors. She couldn’t help but be transfixed in the moments before his new Mask of the Sphinx was reequipped. He asked if anything was wrong, and she didn’t have the heart to tell him. At least he said his perception ability was still as powerful as before. Jane didn’t know if it was worth it to lose your eyes like that.

  They were discussing how to move forward with their class and mask upgrades. It hadn’t been an easy discussion so far. They mostly sat in silence while the few other Climbers in the rest floor walked past them or avoided them altogether.

  “I say we take our time for now,” Corbyn said. He poked and played with the skin on the back of his left forearm. “These are a lot of changes all of a sudden.”

  “I can sense everyone in this room,” Octavius said. He was looking around the room like a new Climber looked at Alistair for the first time. “It’s… overwhelming.”

  “I’m sure it is,” Jane said. “And yes, there were a lot of changes. It would be good to take our time.”

  “For now,” Landon agreed. “Maybe so. We need to find solutions to our drawbacks and make sure they’re covered. If even one of them is exposed while we’re climbing that could put us in serious trouble.”

  “We need items. Weapons, armor, potions, better gear overall. It will help complement our masks. Like how Vi did with his class upgrade.”

  “I know we do. That will come in time. We don’t have to rush now that we have the masks.”

  “We can’t rush,” Octavius said. “We honestly pushed too hard to get to the second tier as it is. That was reckless.”

  “It was fine,” Corbyn said. “Couldn’t really call it a challenge until the eighth floor, and then it actually felt like we were Climbers again. Not just monster slayers.”

  “We’re still monster slayers,” Jane said, tilting her head at him and tapping him on the shoulder. His entire body shook slightly from him chuckling.

  “It doesn’t matter how easy it was, what matters is that we don’t know the full limitations to our curses yet. Or even our boons, for that matter!”

  Jane sighed and nodded slightly. “I concede that you have a point. We do need to a get not just a better grasp on our masks full capabilities, but a complete one. And covering ourselves with weaknesses and strengths would make us that much stronger. With only four of us the third and fourth tiers are already going to be much more difficult.”

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  “It’s a good thing each of us are worth multiple Climbers, then,” Corbyn said.

  Landon smirked. “I have to agree with the big man. As long as we get our affairs in order we can make it. I know we can. Maybe not next month or the month after, but eventually we will.”

  “We have to,” Octavius said.

  “We have to,” Jane agreed, as she rested her hand on her brother’s shoulder. He grabbed it softly and nodded.

  “And we will,” Landon said.

  He trusted the mask’s power. They were the key to surviving the rest of the tower, and his ticket to greatness. The curse didn’t bother him nearly as much as the others. His death wouldn’t even bother him. What mattered was having his name written in history, because then he could live on forever.

  The other three were strong, but they were means to an end. They were his allies but most importantly they were vessels to hold the masks, which were true sources of power and strength. Alistair was letting them wield artifacts unlike anything he’d ever seen or heard about. Classes were marvels unto themselves, bestowing magic to people that completely altered their reality. But having an item that held enough power to rival most sets of items and even some classes seemed almost too good to be true.

  Power and glory would be his, and now he had a path to obtain them. Climbing to the 20th floor would allow him to achieve something very few ever did. And he’d do whatever it took to get there. Even if it meant leaving the others behind. They were still weak minded wanting to use Alistair’s most prestigious reward to remove the masks and curses. Why? After all their work to obtain them they just wanted to cast them to the side in the end?

  No. That wouldn’t happen. Landon wouldn’t let that result come to pass. When he ascended to the 20th floor, he’d merge with the masks to become something new. Something godly. And the other three would either bow before him or be stepping stones for him to achieve that result.

  Because, no matter what, he was going to be victorious. He just needed to be patient, now. All in due time.

  *****

  The four of them then finalized their strategy for the rest of the month and carried it out to great effect. The masks truly did offer them great power at the expense of needing to consider how their curses affected them. Over the weeks and months, the changing of seasons and environments, they slowly grew more and more powerful, finding items to round out their gear and renown in the city that inspired both admiration and fear. Some Climbers avoided them outright while others wanted to be like them, finding powerful artifacts to increase their climbing potential.

  But no other Climbers found such artifacts. Whether they had the same drive as Landon and the others or not was unknown, but it was obvious that most who succeeded did so while relying on their class abilities and support of others. The four of them, calling themselves the Faceless Four, continued on their path forward and up through Alistair following their original goal. They pushed deep into the upper floors, staying in the third tier while finding the threshold of reaching the fourth tier incredibly difficult even with their advantages. The seasons became slightly harder each month with new aspects and challenges that kept them from reaching that elusive final tier of floors. They became less and less patient while going through the motions more and more, stuck in a vicious cycle of mediocrity.

  One month one of them became so badly injured by the second tier boss that they had to take a break from climbing and it nearly cost them their sanity. Despite normally clearing the second tier easily the boss of that floor during the month, a witch in her hut, was stronger than anything they encountered before. They reevaluated their approach but continued to climb, still aiming for that final floor. All while no other Climber or item seemed any more or less interesting to them. Everyone else blurred together, whether they were of the finest guilds or rookies on their first climb. Nothing else in the city was interesting except for the tower itself.

  Until one seemingly random guild meeting when a suspicious light from a strange lantern made their masks glow with such an intensity even Octavius was perplexed. His confusion made the others concerned. The masks normally had strong auras with runes showing their makeup that only he could read with his abnormally strong magical vision, but when the light revealed their true nature the others quickly surmised the light was of a similar magical level to their own. The item might not be strong but it was powerful. Powerful enough to warrant their attention. And that was something new since they had discovered and worn the masks themselves.

  During the brief interaction each of the four members of the Faceless Four mentally noted the Climber that possessed the lantern. He was obviously part of a guild being involved in the meeting, and it wasn’t a pushover guild, either. It was the Twilight Blades, and they were one of the top guilds.

  Well, besides themselves, of course.

  After leaving the meeting, the four quickly left and went into Alistair. It was the one place they felt the most comfortable and safe. They hurried into the portal room and one after another went to the tenth floor.

  Stepping into the mountainous temple, they found a secluded table and sat overlooking the nearby horizon. Various creatures floated and flew in the air away from them further out of reach, creating a relaxing ambience.

  But the four Climbers were anything but relaxed.

  “What was that?” Octavius asked. “How did that lantern light up the runes on our masks? Some of them I couldn’t even see before and still can’t. That shouldn’t be the case.”

  “It has to be another artifact,” Landon said. He was the only one not sitting, instead pacing the area around them. “It’s the only explanation. How else would it have reacted like that?”

  “That could be the case,” Octavius said. “Maybe my magical sight is limited with the masks themselves but I can see plenty of other magical secrets? We still don’t know much about these masks and it’s been months.”

  “What else is there to know?” Jane said while shrugging. She looked around the temple but saw no other group near them. She still kept her voice low. “They’re powerful and cursed, and we keep the curses in check while exploiting the strengths. Easy.”

  Octavius shook his head. “There’s so much that’s still a mystery. Why we had the opportunity to find all four of them. Why they showed up now when there’s no record of other items like them in the library. How they were able to tier up seemingly on their own and their magical abilities expanded. Should I go on?”

  “I’d rather you didn’t,” Corbyn said. “I’m getting hungry.”

  “You’re always hungry, Corbyn.”

  “Hungry means I’m going to be listening less and less soon. I need to kill something.”

  “You need to eat something. There’s a clear difference.”

  “Not for me, you damn mage. You know that.”

  Octavius started to speak but stopped himself. Talking to Corbyn, especially when it had been a good amount of time since they hadn’t killed monsters, was like arguing with a wall. A very large, menacing one.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Landon said, ignoring the others. “You could spend your entire life trying to figure out Alistair’s secrets and fail. Plenty of others have, and there are a lot of texts supporting that fact in the library. Are there not?”

  Octavius sighed. “There are.”

  “So they why’s and how’s don’t matter. We have the masks. How we got them is largely irrelevant at this point. What is relevant is that another item of possibly equal value just revealed itself.”

  “And what do you plan to do about that?” Jane asked. “It doesn’t seem all that special even if it is a unique item. It’s just a lantern that creates light. I admit it was strange it showed our mask’s runes, but that doesn’t concern us. It doesn’t seem like it poses a threat.”

  Landon stopped pacing and pointed a gloved hand at his mask. “Don’t you realize what it actually does? It doesn’t just show the mask’s runes. Even Vi can see them with his magical sight. It allowed other people to see them, too. And did you see the jar was composed of small objects? Like rocks that glow or something.”

  “Mushrooms,” Octavius said. “Weird, yes, but they were multicolored mushrooms and only the yellow ones were lit up when it activated.”

  Landon huffed. “Which further emphasizes my point! There are other colored mushrooms in the lantern? So it’s possible that other colors of light can be produced by it?”

  “Possibly?” Octavius said. “We can’t know for certain unless we ask or that Climber shows us.”

  “Though it would make sense that it would,” Jane said. She put a hand to her chin as she spoke. “If there were other colors then it would stand to reason it could create different lights.”

  “Which might give off different effects,” Landon said. “Which further proves my point! What if the lantern shows even more than Vi’s sight? What if together they could reveal more of Alistair’s secrets?”

  “Didn’t we just agree that secrets don’t matter?” Corbyn asked. “Because the tower will always have them?”

  “But it could mean we find more artifacts that have an equal level of power like that lantern or our masks,” Octavius said. “Holy shit.”

  “Holy shit is right,” Landon said. “We get that lantern and combine it with your magical sight to find items most Climbers haven’t even dreamed of! We won’t just become rich. We’ll have an untold amount of power! The masks were a stepping stone. What if there are armor sets like them? Or weapons?”

  “Then we’d be like gods,” Corbyn said.

  “Even more so than we already are,” Landon said, his arms out wide.

  “And we’d be able to easily push to the 20th floor!” Octavius added, pounding a fist on the table.

  Landon slightly bowed. “Yes… we could do that as well.”

  “I doubt that Climber realizes just how powerful that lantern is,” Jane said.

  “So we take it from him?” Corbyn said. “It shouldn’t be too hard, guild or not.”

  “Not so fast,” Landon said. “We don’t need to be making enemies so abruptly. Let’s try and see if we can work together first.”

  “And if he doesn’t work with us?” Octavius asked.

  Landon sat at the table with them and lowered his voice. “Then we’ll take the lantern the way we know how.”

  The others nodded their agreement. Landon smiled under his mask. He had no actual intention of working with the Climber. At least not in the long term.

  His goal remained the same. Everyone else was simply a means to an end, even the very Climbers sitting at the table with him.