The first thing I did once I returned to the ship after messaging Hugo was to check in with Pete. He had the map and was steering the ship. Despite his lack of powers, his nautical knowledge made him the most important person in the group.

Instead of being teleported to Yakeshi’s home, I’d been sent to another planet, and so time worked the same there. I’d told everyone that I’d only be gone a few minutes, but I ended up disappearing for an hour. Not a long stretch of time for most people, but the tower was an unpredictable, treacherous place.

Everything seemed calm when I approached Pete. He stood tall and firm at the helm with the map tucked into his belt.

I waved hello and stood beside him.

“Everything go okay while I was gone?” I asked.

He shrugged. “It’s hard to say. Everybody has stayed below deck. I saw Hugo come out of your quarters a while ago. He flew down there too and hasn’t resurfaced. Everyone else is probably still sleeping.”

“And you’re okay being up here by yourself?”

He shrugged again. “It’s part of the job. Just got to put up with it until we reach land. That reminds me…” He pulled out the map and handed it over.

As soon as I unfurled it, I could see that it had changed again. We were drawn as a ship at the bottom heading upwards. The top of the map had one large island and then, to its right, were a series of small islands clustered together. An archipelago that contained several silver dots on it while the big island had a larger gold diamond over it.

“What is this?” I asked.

“The main objective is the gold diamond. That’s where we go for the door quest, but the silver dots are side quests.”

I asked him how he knew and he told me to tap on the island. I did and received a new system message.

[Welcome map bearer. As you can see, the door prize is now in sight, but with several days left on the timer, why rush? Every silver side quest offers valuable Rare E-grade loot upon completion. So I guess the question you have to ask yourself is do you want more time to search for the door on the big island, or do you want to go there armed to the teeth?]

The sea between us and the two sets of islands was divided as well. There was a short straight path right to the islands that was a darker blue with jagged lines scrawled on it. But there was a second longer route with bright blue sea and smooth lines.

I tapped on it the darker patch of sea.

[Regardless of side quest or main quest, getting there is your first problem. Do you save time and risk your boat going through harsher waters or lose time going on the longer, safer route?]

“Interesting,” I said. “Do the others know?”

Pete shook his head and went back to staring ahead. “Wasn’t sure if I should tell them. They also seemed kind of tired.”

“Well, yeah, it had been a rough fight. They’re probably all sleeping like you said.”

“I’m not talking about that. There’s a kind of emotional weariness to them. I used to see it in the army back before all this craziness. Guys that would be sent out time and time again without enough down time. Physically they were fine, but mentally? Emotionally? I don’t know. They’d get home and carry this tired look in their eyes for the next year or two until it went away.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because like it or not, you are in charge.”

His words hit hard. I couldn’t deny them, though. He was right. I’d advocated to be the leader, but it was mostly for selfish reasons. Sure, I wanted everyone in the team to survive, but I wanted them to do it my way. I wanted to control what we did as a group because I thought that I knew best. But being a leader meant that I was responsible for more than that. I was responsible for morale, and let me tell you, telling people that they’ll keep surviving isn’t always the strongest motivator. The group needed more.

I thanked Pete and then said, “you never told me you were in the army.”

“If you expect me to call you sir, I’ll deck you, tower climber or not,” he replied cheerfully.

“All I’m asking for is the occasional salute.”

He gave me the finger as I walked away, smiling. I shook my head. “No respect for the chain of command,” I muttered.

Down below deck was Hemi, still passed out in a nearby hammock. I didn’t know how much rest he needed to recover, so I left him alone and went deeper into the ship. Most of it was unexplored territory for me and so I was shocked when I opened a door that led to the galley.

This ship’s kitchen was as modern as could be with a fridge, microwave, and burners. There were also a lot of cupboards, but I checked the fridge first. It was empty.

“The whole kitchen is empty,” said Sebastian, who was sitting at a table behind me. It took everything I had not to appear startled by his voice. I calmly turned and asked, “what was the point of all this then?”

“I guess the Officiator didn’t want us to rely on 18^th century cooking techniques and probably figured we’d bring our own food.”

Just then, my stomach grumbled, and I resisted the urge to use my Blood Bracer to make it go away. “God, I haven’t eaten real food in ages,” I said, joining him at the table.

Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “Not even from the early days? Before everyone was chugging health potions? You didn’t save anything in your inventory?”

I shook my head. “It’s all back in the apartment, which I guess I’ll get access to once we solve this door quest. My inventory right now is full of junk and corpses that I haven’t gotten around to draining of their blood yet.”

“Sounds appetizing.”

There was an awkwardness in the air that neither of us knew how to address, so I changed the subject.

“Have you seen Hugo?”

“Yeah, he’s in Cabin 3. I knocked a while ago, but he said he didn’t want to be disturbed. Why?”

“I’m calling a meeting. I need everybody up on the deck except Hemi, who’s still recovering.”

Sebastian didn’t respond, but he didn’t argue either, so I took that as a win and went to the cabins. Daisy and Elise were both still awake. Their cabins were across from each other and so I told them both at the same time about the meeting. They both seemed irritable at being disturbed, but didn’t argue.

Hugo’s cabin door was the last place on my list. I politely knocked and then waited. After a few seconds, I knocked again and said, “I’m back.”

No response.

“I’m calling a team meeting on the deck.”

Nothing.

I went back to the galley, where Sebastian was still sitting. “Hey, has Hugo seen the kitchen?” I asked.

“No.”

“Good. After I leave, beep the microwave a few times. He’ll think you’ve got food and come running.”

“He’ll be pissed,” Sebastian warned.

“I’ll make it up to him.”

I went back up top to stand with Pete and waited for them to trickle out. Pete was right. They did look tired as they slowly trudged onto the deck. Sebastian came up last, holding a Hugo that was spitting fire.

“You said there’d be food!” he whined.

“Nope, only implied it,” Sebastian said.

Members of the group all eventually looked up at me and my stomach twisted into knots. I hated giving speeches. Hated being the center of attention. But they needed this. I had to step up.

I cleared my throat and began the announcement. “Thanks for coming. I know we’re all tired and you were hoping for more rest, but there’s been an important development.”

A little more light came into the eyes when I said that part and their heads perked up.

“Yes, the map has been updated to show us where the golden door is, but it has also shown us other things. We have two decisions to make. The first is regarding our route. We can take the safe, long path and lose a lot of time or take the more dangerous shorter path.”

A few of them started to speak at once, but I held up my hand for silence.

“The next decision involves either going straight for the golden door or do we go for the side quests that promise valuable high-grade loot?”

I paused and watched each of them internally grapple with the choice before speaking again.

“I also believe that a one combination of these choices is a trap. I feel like I’ve gotten to know the Officiator a little and I can say with absolute certainty that if we take the safe route, then there won’t be time for anything other than the golden door.”

I waited to see if any would disagree with me, but none did. We all knew that this place liked to reward those who played dangerously and punish those who played it too safe.

“I propose that we take the short path and complete every side quest before tackling the golden door.”

I waited. The choice was obvious to me, but I needed to hear if there were any objections. Eventually Elise spoke up, “how do you we’ll have enough time to complete the door quest? I’m sure it won’t be as simple as walking up to it.”

I nodded. “That’s true. It won’t be and time will be against us. But the side quests are more than a simple bonus we could collect. This is Rare E-grade loot tailored specifically to our Classes. This could empower us and make us more than we are. The door represents survival, but these silver quests represent that feeling we all got when we first received our powers. Remember that rush of excitement?”

I looked and saw that they all did, except for Pete, who likely felt a little jealous. Still, that same feeling awaited him if he decided to become a tower climber after the door quest.

Sebastian, of all people, stomped his feet in agreement.

“Remember the hope and possibilities you had?” I continued.

More foot stomps.

“We are going to do more than just survive in this tower. Survival is boring. It is the status quo. We are going to become something greater. Something stronger. Together, we are going to thrive!”    

Now the foot stomps were unanimous.

I had given them something positive to look forward to. I didn’t even need to tell Pete. Already he was turning the wheel and setting a course for the more dangerous path.