Leo spent the next few minutes catching up with Mira and Aric. The three of them sat on a low stone bench in the shade of a vine-draped pavilion, the distant sounds of training echoing faintly from deeper within the district.
"So," Leo said, leaning forward with elbows on his knees. "I'm guessing your final trial wasn't fighting each other?"
Mira snorted. "Gods, no. Just the courtyard—like the one from the previous trial, but ramped up. We had to face a wave of elites, some weird mixed types with way too many limbs."
Aric nodded. "It was brutal, but manageable. Took everything we had, though. You?"
Leo hesitated, then gave a small, sheepish smile. "They made me fight you two."
Mira blinked. "What?"
"Copies," Leo clarified. "Or... something close enough. Looked and fought like you. I had to take you both down. Alone."
Mira sat back, visibly stunned. "Damn. So that's why you looked like you got hit by a mountain."
Aric gave him a long look. "And you still made it here."
Leo shrugged. "Barely."
They sat in silence for a moment, the weight of what Leo had gone through settling between them.
Eventually, he asked, "Why a year? I mean, I'm not complaining, but why wait that long for the next trial?"
Aric answered. "The Tower doesn't always run on a fixed schedule. Once you hit the Fifth Floor, things change. The climb becomes... curated. Controlled."
Mira picked up from there. "They want bigger groups for the Sixth Floor trials. More people make for better long-term candidates. So they wait—pull from different floors, gather who's made it, then start the cycle again."
"Some get lucky," Aric added. "If you finish early in the batch, you could get years to prepare. Others get a month. Depends on timing. We're somewhere in the middle."
Leo frowned. "So it's not just about passing the floors. It's about when you pass them too."
"Exactly," Mira said. "Luck of the draw."
Later that day, Leo wandered through the climbers' district on his own, getting a feel for the others who had made it this far. The space wasn't large, but it had everything they needed—quiet cultivation halls, open training courtyards, communal kitchens and baths, and a towering watchtower that overlooked the outer city.
In total, there were ten people—himself, Mira, and Aric included—currently waiting to take the Sixth Floor trial. The others varied in background and demeanor. Some were reserved, already deep in training. Others welcomed Leo with curious questions and quick camaraderie.
There was Kaelen, a lithe wind cultivator with pale hair and sharp eyes who had a habit of meditating on rooftops. Sel, a quiet woman with a jagged scar across her throat who communicated with hand gestures but whose talent with earth was unmatched. Two brothers, Ral and Niko, who fought in perfect tandem, known for overwhelming their opponents with relentless, coordinated strikes. And a stoic man named Thorn, who spoke rarely but seemed to be respected by the others. No one knew exactly what his power was.
That evening, after a shared meal in the central hall of the climbers' district, Leo lingered to chat with the others. The atmosphere was more relaxed than he expected. Despite their strength and progress, most of the climbers were friendly—some even eager to swap stories about their final trial.
"Yours was the courtyard too, right?" Leo asked Kaelen, who was lazily swirling wind qi around a carved pebble in his palm.
Kaelen smirked. "Sort of. I had to guide a group of weaker trialists through a battlefield while being ambushed by ranged attackers. Took strategy, not just strength."
Sel, sitting nearby, tapped her knuckles on the stone table and gestured with her hands—a subtle code she used. Kaelen translated. "She says hers was a single duel. A powerful opponent, but no environment interference, no pressure from time."
Ral and Niko, the ever-grinning brothers, leaned over from the next table. "We had to hold a ruined outpost," Ral said. "Thirty-six hours of straight defense."
"Hard, but nothing crazy," Niko added. "We could take turns resting."
Leo frowned slightly. "None of you had to fight anyone from your own group?"
There was a pause. Heads shook.
"No," said Thorn from across the room, his voice gravelly. "Why?"
"I had to fight Mira and Aric. Alone. After wiping out the courtyard."
The silence that followed was telling. Kaelen let the wind pebble fall. Sel raised her brows slightly. Even Thorn turned his head more fully to look at Leo.
Ral gave a low whistle. "That's... brutal."
"Yeah," Leo said slowly, "I've been getting the feeling that our group's trials haven't exactly been standard."
Mira and Aric entered a moment later, catching the last part of his sentence. Mira laughed without humor. "We've suspected that for a while."
Aric nodded. "It might have something to do with how we finished every trial so far first. Or that we all passed with more qi points than average."
Leo leaned back in his seat, absorbing that.
Different trials. Custom-built, it seemed. Tailored to the climber.
And yet, somehow, his group had been consistently handed the harsher versions.
The others returned to their conversations, but the thought clung to Leo like a shadow.
Whatever awaited them on the Sixth Floor… it wouldn't be easy.