[Your wish has been heard. A Time Pearl will be awarded. The Time Pearl has been automatically activated.]

[The user will be transported back in time, eight years, two months, five days, and ten hours ago, at the time humans were first teleported to Etna.]

[To merge with the current timeline, the user’s body will be restored to its original state and all the user’s spells shall be erased.]

[However, the user’s memories, mind, and soul shall remain unaltered.]

[We understood your wish as a desire to return to the cities and live peacefully. As a result, we shall offer you the chance to remake your life. Make good use of your second chance. Good luck.]

I suddenly felt dizzy. The genderless voice kept speaking into my mind. My legs trembled, I felt weak. I instinctively crouched down and touched something soft and smooth.

‘A carpet?’

I found myself crouching in a cubic white room. The walls and ceiling were completely white; on the floor was a white carpet.

I was wearing a casual attire; T-shirt, jeans and sneakers.

‘This place looks familiar.’

‘Wait a minute. According to the voice, I travelled back in time? Does that mean…’

I looked up and just as I expected, there was a small figure floating in the middle of the room. It was a fairy, wearing a white priest robe. The fairy was completely different from what humans believed; he was short and bald. His face was very human-like but sharper and slimmer. He had a transparent pair of wings, like butterfly wings, coming out of its priest robe.

“Not bad human. You did not panic and quickly spotted me.” The fairy spoke with his childish voice. “I am Levi, your guide for the zeroth floor of the tower of hope.”

I remained silent, observing the fairy. My mind was in turmoil. ‘So it was not a prank. It really is like I remember. It has been almost nine years and I forgot the name of my guide, but I remember it being a fairy, a very condescending one at that…’

I let myself sit on the ground, falling into deep thoughts. I was momentarily shocked by the events but quickly recovered. After living in the tower for close to nine years, I have learned that even the impossible is possible.

‘This is not exactly what I asked for, but I guess I can work with it. The wishes of the gods are notorious for being as indirect as possible… Maybe starting back from scratch is not too bad.’

‘Wait! What am I saying? What is going to happen to all the savings I made for my retirement! F*ck! I worked so hard to live comfortably and now, I will have to do it all over again…’

Noticing my expression change, Levi, the fairy scratched his head. “Human, are you not afraid of seeing me?”

“Why should I? Aren’t you just a fairy?” I answered back quickly; I realised that now was not the time to lament about what I lost.

“Just a fairy? Do you know that the fairies are one of the first races to come to this place? Do you know in what situation you are right now?”

“I do. Earth was facing an invasion from alien creatures. Surprisingly, very few humans died since the aliens’ goal was to enslave humanity. When Earth was on the brink of collapse, a mysterious entity appeared and offered to bring all the humans to Etna, the tower of hope. The human leaders voted, and, in the end, the majority agreed to migrate after observing the destructive force of the aliens. Etna is the tower of hope, the place where we have been invited to live at. However, we still need to earn our place in this ecosystem.”

“That… That is correct.” Levi replied with a hint of surprise. He scratched his head in confusion; things were not going according to the script. “Then, do you know what I am here for?”

I nodded. “You are the guide I have been allocated. You will guide me through the zeroth floor, through a series of challenges. As I said, humans need to earn their place here and unfortunately, many are not even qualified to enter the first floor.”

Levi froze in place. “How do you know that? You look a bit young, are you the son of one of the presidents or something?”

“Oh!” I gasped in surprise and embarrassedly smiled. I answered honestly to all of Levi’s questions, but a regular human was not supposed to know these answers.

‘I should keep my mouth shut. Celine and the others used to reprimand me for being too honest.’

“Maybe.”

“It is fine if you want to keep your identity a secret. Anyway, since you seem to have insider information, do you have any questions you would like to ask before we start?” Levi asked with a half-disappointed and a half-annoyed expression.

“No, we can start immediately,” I replied and smirked. There was no need to waste time. I probably knew more about the tower than Levi. The fairy was just looking for some ways to increase his own value; he wanted me to look up to it. Fairies were proud creatures, who liked to be fawned over. Unfortunately, I was not planning on giving Levi that satisfaction. In fact, I wanted to limit my interactions with the fairy to the minimum.

The zeroth floor, the floor I was currently at, could be considered as the tutorial floor. Every human would have to pass through a series of challenges and only the successful ones would be allowed on the first floor. To guide us, several creatures were contracted and allowed on the zeroth floor. However, the way they guided us varied significantly from person to person. The guides did not even need to do anything; just their presence was enough for them to complete their part of their contract, to get paid.

As long as a certain number of humans made it through the zeroth floor, the divinities in charge of the tower would not even bat an eye at the behaviour of the guides. Over the years, the guides gradually discovered the existence of this loophole and took full advantage of it. They came up with the concept of “Consultation Fee”. If the newcomers wanted some information about the tower and the stages, they needed to pay up and as they did not have any money yet, they would simply go into debt before even reaching the first floor.

I clearly remembered falling for it. Like many, I was scared of dying and naturally went into debt. This incident was something I would never forget but this time, things are going to be different.

“Hmmp! Are you sure about that? You are going to go through many challenges, some are benign, but others can be life-threatening.”

“It’s fine. I will figure out by myself.” I replied. I kept my answers short and firmly declined all of Levi’s offers.

The fairy tried to convince me a few more times before eventually giving up. He clicked his fingers and the room suddenly got brighter. Behind me, an opening magically appeared on the wall.

“Since you are confident, let us move to Room 1.” Levi flew ahead and disappeared into the second room.

I got up and after confirming that I was no longer feeling dizzy, I followed his steps into the brightly lit room. The second room had a very similar appearance to the first one, except for the twenty or so orbs floating in the middle of the room. The orbs were neatly arranged across the room, two meters apart from each other.

‘Right… The first room… The selection room…’

Levi flew across the room happily before stopping next to me. “Welcome to the first room. As your guide, I shall give you a quick explanation. Each of these orbs contains a spell that you can learn. You can only choose one spell. The spell you choose will also determine your future path of growth. If you need any help in choosing, do not hesitate to ask.”

I remained silent. I knew Levi had just thrown a bait. His brief introduction to the room served only one purpose; to get me to ask questions and pay the consultation fees. He raised many points such as the future path of growth and how to choose a starting spell.

It has been almost nine years since I went through this process, but I still vaguely remembered the steps.

I looked at the orbs and laughed at myself. ‘My aptitude for magic is really poor…’

‘Still, this is where it all begins. I can choose any spell I want but I must choose wisely. This time, I do not want to fight on the frontline again. I just want to live quietly in the city.’

My eyes fell on the yellow orb right in front of me. It stood out among its colourless neighbours. A hieroglyph was floating in the middle of the orb and although I have never learned any language aside from my mother tongue, I still understood the symbol perfectly.

It was the name of the spell contained inside the orb: [Ember]

I smiled to myself; it was the very orb I chose the first time I came here.