Jace stood still in the middle of the room as pieces of trash flung around him. His expression was bleak and unbothered by how much the slob managed to hoard even more junk since their conversation yesterday.
Agnes rummaged through more trash, slipping on torn envelopes in the process as she complained:
"I know I left it here somewhere! Just give me a second, I'll find it!"
The young woman wore a comfortable top with a neckline that revealed more skin than society allowed. For her pants, Jace didn't even care if she had any.
Agnes bumped into him, then felt around his body to determine if he was another obstacle of junk.
"New sword?"
Jace said back to her indifferently.
"Can I just have my license?"
She laughed out loud.
"What do you think I'm doing, you brat? Do you even have the consideration to help me look for it?"
He groaned, stepping around and kicking away stained bowls of whatever substance had been rotting there.
"How could you possibly lose it? Did you just throw it away the moment someone gave it to you?"
The young woman turned as she swept away strands of her dark violet hair.
"Something like that, but it's somewhere here! If my memory serves me right…"
After a few minutes of trading insults with each other, the two of them looked through the piles of trash in the slob's humble abode. From finding random objects and old pieces of armor, they discovered more than what the junk had to behold. Though, the longer this had persisted, the more frustrated Jace became.
He wanted to leave Sun Valley and the only thing holding that back was the irresponsibility of this slob.
Then a round of knocks came from the door. For a moment, Jace had assumed it was another Climber looking to find the fortune of their Soul. But as the knocks continued, in a rhythmic pattern, his skin crawled to his neck.
Jace immediately jumped between Agnes and her path to the door.
"Don't open it!"
Agnes tried to maneuver around him, confused on what type of sudden trick he was playing.
"Move out of the way, you brat! It's my goodies! My sunshine!"
He glanced at the door, hearing the rhythm of knocks again.
"You can't tell her I was here, please!"
She drew back her face.
"What the hell?"
The young woman noticed the faint crack in his voice. The auburn boy was begging her as if his strange plea had meant something deeply important.
Without any more struggle, Jace ran and vaulted over the counter, sitting perfectly still behind it without a sound. He couldn't stand in the dark and hoped nobody would see him.
The Climber behind that door could see through the dark, after all.
Agnes opened the door, squinting her sensitive eyes to the beaming sun. After her vision adjusted, she yelled excitedly:
"Sunshine!"
Then her smile faded.
"Where's my delivery?"
The familiar voice responded out of breath as her shadow casted on the walls.
"Is he here? Did he come visit you?"
Agnes laughed, picking on the blonde girl's clothes.
"What are you wearing? Did you run all the way from your cafe, wearing this? Did you finally go insane, too?"
The blonde girl remained silent for a bit, then said impatiently:
"Agnes, come on, did he come visit you?"
Agnes pursed her lips, summoning the last brain cells in her head to conjure a petty lie.
"You're talking about Chase?"
The blonde girl clicked her tongue in desperation, even picking up an attitude with her own friend.
"Jace or Chase, I don't care what you call him, did he come to your house? I told him to wait at the cafe and he's gone. Did he—already take your license?"
Agnes shrugged with a fabricated frown.
"Maybe he did, maybe he didn't, I don't know, my memory gets a little fuzzy without sugar."
The conversation turned silent. None of their voices seemed to biker with each other and neither had the door closed the sunlight to tell Jace it was over. As he sat behind the counter, clutching his adamantium sword between his knees, it felt like an eternity.
Until the familiar voice came again, though her voice trembled as if she was on the verge of breaking down.
"Could you…give this to him if he ever comes here?"
Jace buried his face further into his knees as his auburn hair covered his eyes.
The door finally closed, greeting them with another moment of silence, until footsteps came around and stopped a few feet to where he sat.
Agnes leaned by the counter, studying the auburn boy holed in his own aching heart.
"Do I get to know what happened between you two? I feel like I should. The look on her face tells me I won't be getting my basket of goodies today. I assume you are at fault for that."
Jace's eyes were gloomy through the dark. It had felt his throat was being clenched harder than before by those invisible thorns. He couldn't even muster a response to Agnes.
She flicked something metal beside him, hearing the small item wobble on the wood before it finally settled down.
"You two really have something going on and it's messing up my deliveries. What do you have to say for yourself, brat?"
He slowly pinched the ring, holding the Relic in his eyes like it had never belonged to him.
'Is she seriously…no, I can't even care anymore.'
Agnes kneeled next to him. Surprisingly, her smug face wasn't in the mood to tease him. She asked him sternly:
"That's a Relic, isn't it?"
Jace nodded, keeping his lifeless stare fixated onto the ring.
She reached inside her shirt through the hanging neckline and fished out a small card made out of stainless metal. It was his forged license.
He gently grabbed it from her hands, failing to read the engravings in the dark. Though, with this, the lone auburn boy could utilize Ports like any regular Climber and be free from any remorse.
But he didn't understand why the card was warm, as if the metal was pressed against her skin for the entirety of the day.
Agnes pushed off of him as she stood.
"You got what you wanted, now get out of my house. Not only did you make things more difficult, you stole a Relic from my sunshine."
Jace made his way to the door like he was unwilling to move. It would seem as if he would rather prefer to sit behind that counter than to confront the outside.
Agnes folded her arms, watching the auburn boy's sluggish movements.
"You're aiming to ascend the Tower alone?"
He struggled to find the door's knob, choosing not to answer the young woman's question.
She tilted her head.
"I can see your Soul got heavier. That's an impressive amount of experience for that much of a difference within a single expedition. But, you can't, Chase, no matter how remarkable that Curse may be."
He opened the door, flooding the house in sunlight. There wasn't any more need to listen to a slobby oracle of the Soul. Whatever she had to say, didn't matter. This was the last time they would ever meet.
But Agnes continued, standing a few steps outside her door despite her irritation with the sun.
"I hate to see worthy Souls get wasted, you know, and that includes yours. If you want to challenge the Tower alone then you might as well drive that fancy sword into your chest. In fact, that might be the most painless death than the ones you'll find up there."
The young woman's words didn't seem to reach the auburn boy as he walked further from her house. The senseless goals had dictated his mind to think he was a plague to the people around him. No matter how insane it sounds for a single Climber to venture inside an expedition by themselves, it was for the better. He wouldn't have to be a burden anymore.
To keep his pitiful Soul away was how he wouldn't drag innocent Climbers into the Void with him.
Some time later, Jace found the Portkeeper and waited as the man roughly reviewed his forged license. Then after a few seconds, the man nodded and asked for his destination.
He lifted his dreary eyes and said:
"Twentieth Floor."
The Portkeeper studied the auburn boy, wondering if he had any other squad members present. Looking behind him, the other Climbers were fully equipped in gear and ready to embark on another expedition with their friends and allies.
But for the lone Climber standing in front of the Portkeeper, he had only worn a set of dark leather armor, a small traveling bag that looked empty, and an adamantium sword. He wouldn't even last one encounter without proper supplies and provisions.
Jace repeated the Floor again as if the Portkeeper didn't hear him correctly.
The Portkeeper blinked a few times, figuring the auburn boy was on a journey to his death sentence.
Jace stepped onto the center of runes, hearing it glow and hum to life.
[Soul detected.]
[Beginning ascent.]
He ignored the snickers and confused looks from the other Climbers as they noticed the runes had activated in a process to ascend. They thought he was crazy, and perhaps insane, because who would ever think an expedition could be done with a single Climber?
The auburn boy didn't care. The Void was always going to be waiting for him in the end, after all.
[Process successful.]
[Climber Jace has ascended to the 20th floor, Silent Meadow.]