***Caddock, level 63 High Paladin***“Sir, the scouts say William Oh’s caravan is parked in Bakton Keep, and they’ll be there for another two weeks. They took a month off to shore up their levels.”Caddock digested that. It would be ill-advised to pick a fight in the middle of a Lord’s demesne, so he would simply avoid Bakton Keep altogether.He never thought he’d be granted the opportunity to pass his target on the way up, but here it was, staring him in the face. The opportunity to claim a Stronghold and fortify his position before the Deceiver even set foot on the 10th Floor.“Take us to the Key Site,” he said, scanning the surrounding Climbers.They’d started with a few hundred convicted criminals and their numbers had swelled to the low thousands, attracting hopeful Climbers like lodestone as they swept through the Strongholds on the way up The Tower, drawn in by Caddock’s determination and the paradoxical appeal of a paladin striking out against the church.None of them really understood that determination had nothing to do with them, nothing to do with breaking the chains of systematic oppression. None of that mattered, in the long run.The Coil was coming to a close, and Caddock had to kill the seed of destruction and chaos, the scion of ouroboros, the symbol of chaos and rebirth.Chaos humanity could handle. It was the other part that doomed them.Rebirth. Starting from nothing. Again. Humanity could not keep getting knocked down to refugees huddled around a fire, barely eking out an existence. They must become powerful as a society and conquer the tower.So sayeth Granesh, king of the gods.While Caddok had disobeyed the Church, he still had absolute loyalty to Granesh, and he felt his god guiding him toward the Deceiver’s heart like a loosed arrow.“But sir, we’re underleveled too.” Albert said. (...)