Ren quickly paid everybody out their split, which was 4 gold, 42 silver, and 50 copper each. It was definitely more than they would have gotten if they had just thrown everything onto the auction house and crossed their fingers.

  And the best part?

  They didn’t even have to wait a day to get their money.

  Now before you all run off,” Ren said, raising his voice over the happy chatter, “remember, this is a multi-part quest. So who wants to keep going?”

  “I do!” yelled the thief immediately, practically bouncing in place.

  The thief had been annoyed that the ring he’d been eyeing hadn’t gone to him. He’d even grumbled a little, watching it slip away into someone else’s hands.

  But then he saw how much it sold for.

  As a teacher in an orphanage, he knew there was no way he could’ve afforded it—even now, with four gold jingling in his pocket.

  And four gold?

  It was the kind of money that didn’t just feel lucky. It felt amazeballs.

  He was greedy, sure, but he also wasn’t stupid. They had just slain an Alpha for this quest—how could it not be worth more?

  Of course, the group except for Kanuka didn’t realize that slaying the Alpha hadn’t actually been part of the quest at all.

  It had been a side trip.

  The quest was still just about picking herbs.

  Ren definitely wasn’t going to tell them that.

  “Alright,” Ren said, flashing a grin. “Hold onto your money because there’s another opportunity coming up as soon as we finish the quest.”

  “Ooh,” said the mage, eyes lighting up. “That’s exciting.”

  One of the warriors grinned and threw a fist bump into the air.

  “Hell yeah!” he said.

  Kanuka looked a little confused, frowning as he jingled the pouch of coins now sitting heavily at his belt.

  He knew the quest was just about gathering herbs.

  What did the split have to do with it?

  Still, he wasn’t complaining.

  Not when he looked at the cold, hard cash in his inventory.

  ‘Over four hundred credits,’ Kanuka thought, barely able to contain his excitement.

  In the slums, 400 credits wasn’t just good.

  It was noteworthy. Like get stabbed in an alley noteworthy.

  That was food for 30 days—decent food, too, not just instant rice and flavorless soy paste.

  That was a little extra set aside for repairs, emergencies, or even luxuries like a couple cans of real soda, or a secondhand pair of work boots.

  ‘If this is just the beginning,’ Kanuka thought, ‘then I’m never going back to hauling dish bins or scrubbing barbeque grease again.’

  And for the first time since he had started Towerbound, Kanuka finally felt it:

  Hope.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Real, tangible hope. And hope in the slums was rarer than an 18 year old virgin.

  There was around three hours left in their third shift, and Ren wasn’t going to waste that time.

  “All right, everybody, let’s continue the quest, then.”

  They first went back to where the Shadow Wolf Alpha had originally been prowling, picking up all the herbs in the area. Ren made sure they grabbed the most vital ones needed for the quest itself — even though it didn’t stop him from scooping up everything else too. Herbs were money, after all.

  The only thing they had to watch out for was time.

  Sure, the Auction House detour had eaten up a bit of it, but the Shadow Wolf Alpha hadn’t respawned—yet. That was the clock ticking in the back of Ren’s mind. If they took too long gathering herbs, that thing would come back, and when it did, it wouldn’t be gentle. It would tear them apart before they even got a chance to scream.

  The worst part? Ren was the one doing the majority of the work.

  Not because he was being a control freak. Not because he didn’t trust the others. But because he was the only one with a gathering skill.

  So while the rest of the group spread out as makeshift scouts—squinting at plants, poking at mushrooms, shouting “Maybe this one?” across the brush—Ren was the only one who could actually tell what was valuable, and more importantly, harvest it without destroying it.

  Once that was done, they headed toward the second zone to collect the next herb.

  Along the way, they ran into goblin sappers.

  Finally, humanoids.

  These little bastards were where all those skill books and weapon drops people were bragging about in the auction house were actually coming from.

  Goblin sappers weren’t as terrifying as a Shadow Wolf Alpha, but they were still tough compared to the horned rabbits and spiked pigs everyone else had been grinding back at level one.

  Still, Ren’s group?

  They were riding a serious morale high.

  Killing the Alpha had changed everything.

  Almost everyone had gained a full level from that fight — especially the ones who were still at level one before the battle.

  The mage, especially, who had been trailing behind, had shot right up to nearly level three.

  Kanuka, of course, was the sole exception.

  He was still stubbornly clinging to the bottom of level two after his heroic bait run.

  ‘Poor guy,’ Ren thought without much sympathy. ‘Welcome to being the sacrificial pawn.’

  Ren himself had dinged level three quietly during the loot split, and it had been worth it.

  Because at level three?

  He unlocked a new cleric spell.

  Group Cure (Minor) – Heals 10% of all party members’ HP within range over 10 seconds.

  It wasn’t flashy.

  It wasn’t some battlefield-turning miracle.

  But damn if it wasn’t useful when you had idiots charging in left and right.

  Spells in Towerbound weren’t automatic. You were supposed to get one every three levels—starting at level 4. Then 7. Then 10. That was the original system. Everyone knew it.

  But somewhere between beta and launch, the devs had quietly tweaked it.

  Now, spells dropped at levels 3, 6, and 9 instead. Basically every 3 levels.. No announcement. No patch notes. Just a quiet little shift, probably meant to help new players feel stronger early on. A subtle reward to keep people playing past the first couple hours.

  So when Ren hit level 3 and the spell selection screen popped up, he raised an eyebrow—but only for a second.

  He knew exactly what to pick. Group Cure.

  There were two other options, sure, but he didn’t even glance at them. Even though he’d only reached level 10 as a cleric in his last life, he already had a blueprint for what he was building this time.

  And those other spells? Useless, unless there were a bunch of invisible undead around. Which there weren’t.

  Group Cure though wasn’t just nice to have. It was a foundation.

  ‘Finally,’ Ren thought, feeling a little more secure. ‘Now I can pretend I’m helping without getting any closer to the fighting.’

  The group was full of energy, hacking and blasting their way through the goblin sappers without a care in the world.

  The rangers rained arrows, the warriors cleaved, and the mage cackled wildly as she threw Firebolts that made goblin heads pop like fireworks.

  Of course the thief did thiefy things—skulking around, slipping into shadows, and backstabbing goblins the moment they turned their backs. Double damage, every time.

  This was the first time he really got to shine. No crowd of randoms stealing aggro, no confusion swallowing up his moment. Just clean setups, perfect strikes, and that sweet burst of numbers when it all landed just right.

  For once, he wasn’t just part of the background—he was the blade in the dark.

  Ren, for his part, stayed way, way in the back, hiding behind a rocky outcropping any time a goblin so much as looked his way.

  ‘Call me a coward all you want,’ he thought, ‘I’m still alive. And being alive is underrated.’

  Even though he had technically been a level 10 cleric in his last life, and technically had more experience than all of these guys combined, he wasn’t stupid enough to believe that made him invincible.

  One critical hit, one mistake, and it would be a very sad, very expensive walk back from the graveyard.

  No thanks.

  He kept tossing out Basic Heals and his new Group Cure when needed, making sure the frontline stayed standing, but otherwise?

  Ren had absolutely no shame about being the most cautious, paranoid cleric in the world.

  And frankly?

  It was working.

  The goblins dropped quickly, and the second zone’s herbs were almost within reach.

  Ren grinned.

  ‘A couple hours left. Plenty of time to make a fortune.’