Kael wiped the sweat from his brow and leaned against the cold steel of the scaffold. The city stretched out below him, glittering, deafening, alive in a way he could never be. Neon lights reflected off the river like shards of broken glass, and the hum of distant traffic mixed with the occasional cry of a gull.
He had been working almost non-stop for weeks. Construction, maintenance, hauling steel beams, climbing scaffolds, his body was sturdy, calloused, a machine honed by necessity rather than choice. Yet despite his strength, Kael remained a normal person.
He could only sigh as he remembered the last conversation he had with his girlfriend. Well, Ex, for now.
His mind wandered for a bit, melancholic and lonely, not even the company of alcohol was able to wash the insignificance he felt that day.
Back in his small room, rented with more begging than money offered, he watched her leave as she shouted, "Nothing! You're nothing! You work like a dog and can barely even feed yourself and you're thinking of marriage? What am I going to eat? What am I going to wear, you'd be an embarrassment to me and my family if they saw us together! You're not even awakened! The only good thing about you is your dick. And I can't live off of that alone! Don't fucking call me again! We're done!"
That was the last words he heard from her and they bit deeper than the time he had a nail go through his thigh.
"Awakened." That was also the word that hit him the hardest. At his age, he had yet to be invited, yet to awaken, yet to matter.
The world had changed long before Kael could remember, and the thing that had caused it loomed in front of his eyes, right from where he stood watching the city. A massive tower that tore through the earth, piercing the skyline of New York as if it had always belonged there. Not just in New York, though, towers similar to this one had risen everywhere across the globe. Thousands of them, each one identical, each one offering both hope and despair in equal measure.
He had been barely an infant when they first came, too young to understand, too young to fear. All he knew was that the world had been shattered overnight. Governments collapsed, economies crumbled, and the faiths that had guided people for centuries fractured under the weight of something beyond comprehension. Deities, constellations, gods, or perhaps horrors older than humanity itself had decided, it seemed, that Earth would become their playground.
At first, nobody could grasp what the towers were. Some had tried to destroy them, thinking human weapons might suffice, but the results were catastrophic. Entire cities were decimated, leaving nothing behind but rubble, ash and intact towers. And yet, slowly, the rules became apparent.
The Tower is not to be messed with.
People began to disappear. Some returned. Those who did spoke of floors stacked like worlds, each one more dangerous than the last, each one holding treasures and powers that no human should wield. But there was a price: fail a floor, miss a deadline, and the tower punished the world in return. Kael had heard tales of monstrous invasions, cities overrun, and the desperate cries of those who had survived only to witness death on a scale he could scarcely imagine.
The ones chosen to climb the towers were not ordinary humans. They returned with abilities that defied logic, strength, speed, dexterity, even magic. They were hailed as heroes, the first line of defense when the tower's wrath spilled into the world. And slowly, life had found a fragile balance again, prosperity and adventure weaving into the new order.
But not everyone was invited. Not everyone was given a chance. And Kael, born ordinary and unremarkable, had been one of the countless millions left on the outside, forced to watch as others reached heights he could never hope to touch.
At twenty-six, he was considered old for someone unawakened.
The world had also changed in subtler, crueler ways. Mana Poisoning, a disease born from the first eruption, still lingered, claiming innocents. Kael's mother had been one of them. She lay in a hospital bed back in Brooklyn, fragile as paper, her mind trapped in a half-conscious haze. Only an Elixir, a rare, expensive potion found sporadically in tower loot, could wake her. But Kael's life, his wages, and even his dreams weren't enough.
He sighed and sank onto a cot in the makeshift office atop the skeletal building. A small TV flickered in the corner, along with a half full bottle of beer to keep him company. the sound of someone talking faintly over the hum of the night. On-screen, Asher Veylan smiled. The country's golden S-class adventurer, the hunter everyone worshipped. He waved to children, signed cheques for charity, and posed for photographs that made him look almost divine.
Though a certain female reported was hounding him with some aggressive questions and rumored crimes that might be linked to him, all he did was smile and wave completely ignoring her attempt at revealing some darkness that she could see behind his smile.
Kael snorted, bitterness twisting his gut. "A hero for the cameras… a monster in the shadows." He took another sip of his stale beer. It only helped worsen his mood.
Though Asher beat the allegations of murder and rape, some people still believe he isn't the goody too shoes that he is.
"Not that I care." He thought.
He downed the bottle as he watched. If he was invited by the tower, perhaps he could wake his mother after all the richness and wealth the adventurers get from the tower, even the E rank and F ranked ones from clearing one floor are dozens of times what he could earn through his lifetime of working construction. So far all he could do is pay for his mother's bill to keep her at the hospital, and with the increase of cost of living, even that wasn't looking too hopeful.
His thoughts drifted to the countless mornings he'd stared at her hospital bed, calculating every expense, every sacrifice. This city didn't care about him. The towers didn't care. The adventurers… well, why would they care about an Unweakened. Kael rubbed his temples and closed his eyes. For a few seconds, sleep found him, merciful and heavy, the only company he had in this terrible world.