Laurence was quickly confronted with a pine forest when he and Yun left the testing area. The forest was a lot thinner than the one he had been through a few days before, and a lot more frigid. It was comparatively tame, and after about an hour of travel the two companions even found a trail that seemed to lead towards a settlement. The road they were travelling was a well worn one, but still very rough and by the second hour of the meandering walk that Laurence preferred, they reached the village.

It was a simple village, with a low population count, but it still seemed to be bustling with life. The butcher and baker were arguing over who had better produce, the smith was busy hammering away at some project or another and the inn was bursting with the sounds of merriment. Laurence had no idea why, but the inn seemed to be the main draw for the village. He walked up to the entrance of the town itself and was met by two men in armoured uniform.

“Good day young lad! If I may be so bold, may I ask why you and your canine friend are in the fine village of Cie’Awll?” The man on the left took charge. He was the taller of the two, and seemed to have some sort of seniority that had been decided between the both of them.

“I’m Laurence, this is Yun. We’re climbing Babel, who are you?” Laurence was interested by this pair. One tall, one fat, they reminded him of the stories his mother used to tell him before going to bed with pairs or groups of people who all looked disproportionately different.

“Climbing Bay-bell? What’s that?” The fat man had never heard the phrase, but the tall man had. The moment Laurence mentioned Babel his eyes bulged. He knew about the tower, and knew far more than his friend did.

“Shut up Trevor. I’m Jake, my friend here is Trevor, Trev for short. We’ve been posted on guard detail for this town, so I’m going to have to take you to the inn and set you down, then I can go and sort out a pass card for you. Once you have that you can be on your way.” The guard, Jake, seemed rather nervous about Laurence. He acted like the child was some sort of explosive, so tried to take a careful and measured approach to deal with him.

“Jake, what’s a pass card?” Interjected Trev.

“Shut up Trevor. A pass card is the card that the captain gives people who are allowed access to the waste. You should know that by now.” Jake was starting to sweat slightly now. Trev was making his job far harder than it could be.

“Can I not use this as a pass? Every challenger has something like this.” He revealed the slowly spiralling nebula on his right arm, with the number two in the center. Jake gulped. Laurence could tell he was getting more and more nervous about something, but had no idea what. It was beginning to annoy the boy, but he wanted to know why he was being so careful. Was he like this with all people who arrived here or was he just like this with challengers?

“I’m afraid that you’re going to have to wait. Don’t worry though, the pass will only take twenty minutes to make. Just follow me to the inn and we can sort it out for you.”

“Alright then.”

They quickly walked to the inn and Laurence got himself and Yun some food. They had not stocked up on food before they left, so they were quite hungry. When the two guards walked off into the inn Laurence was still feeling uncomfortable about how they left so decided to follow them. He ducked under the table he was sat at and dashed to the back door, then followed the pair until they entered a large building near the back of the town with the words ‘Frontier Guard’ emblazoned above the entrance. Laurence thought it was a bad idea to go inside, and instead followed the two men outside as they entered the office of someone they both considered their superior. He made an incision into the window near their boss with a mana blade and heard them talking.

“Sir.. He is just a child!” Said Jake, he knew what was coming but did not like it.

“I don’t care Sergeant! The General has ordered that all challengers are collected and taken to the depths of the wall. You can disagree with it, but they are dangerous, and we want to learn how to harness their power for the greater good of Odnw’Aldn. This benefits us all.” Their Captain was a dominant personality, and he would brook nothing from his subordinates. He had his orders and they would follow theirs. “Go back to that boy and make sure he reaches the wall. He has to go through there to get to the «Ohyl Aget» anyway, so just make sure you do not lose him.”

“Yes sir!” Both men exclaimed, grabbing a cloth band on the way out. When Laurence saw this he immediately sprinted back towards the inn. When he returned he noticed that Yun had finished both plates of food and was looking very satisfied with himself. The inn was still quite raucous but only now did Laurence realise how many men in the inn were soldiers wearing a similar uniform to Jake and Trev. Two men were arm wrestling on one side of the room while a third was taking bets on who would be the winner. It had garnered a massive amount of attention from the rest of the customers and effectively left Laurence's re-entry unknown to the patrons of the inn.

Laurence saw this competition and wanted to take part, so he walked over to the gaggle of men and said in a loud voice, “Could I have a go?”

The entire crowd paused and began laughing. A child who could have been no older than ten asking to compete in a strongman competition was laughable, adorable but laughable. In the end the current champion wiped away the tears from his eyes and said “I don’t see why not. Same rules as everyone else and if you win three of five rounds then I’ll buy the entire inn a drink. If I win then I’ll just buy all the people who have challenged me a drink.”

The crowd cheered at that. Either way people would be getting free alcohol, but it was unthinkable that the champion would lose. At just under two metres tall and a metre and a half wide, the champion, Bill, was a man made of almost pure slabs of muscle. He could lift over four hundred pounds with his back and his arms were nothing to be sniffed at either. He looked like a man made of logs and then wrapped in meat. The two wrapped their hands together and people began enjoying themselves. It was a silly spectacle, but the crowd was having fun with it.

Bill thought to himself that the easiest way to win and give the child some face would be lose the first match, win the second and third then lose the fourth, going for a victory in the fifth round. The crowd would enjoy it and it would leave with everyone feeling good, which meant people would come back to wrestle with him the next week. If he just crushed the child it would make him look bad more than anything.

The referee struck his glass at the side of the table to signify the start and the two fighters began arm wrestling. Laurence leant forward and then put about twenty percent of his power into the push. Bill was going easy but noticed that this child actually had a large amount of strength in his arms. His hand smashed against the table and the referee clanged the glass against the table again. “Round one to the kid! Come on Bill, are you trying to lose your profits for today?”

Bill laughed, but then frowned. This child was different. He had heard of the ancient gods coming down in various forms to play pranks on the unwary. They often rewarded the ones who beat them well, so Bill decided to go all out over the next three rounds with greed shining in his eyes.

Laurence smiled and looked up at the big man. He wondered how little strength he would need to beat this man, if a mere twenty percent had that reaction. He had not yet realised that Bill had gone easy on him, but it did not matter. The boy had no intention to lose either.

The crowd cheered as the referee clanged his glass ushering the beginning of the next round. This time Bill’s muscles immediately began straining and to the crowd around the table seemed to be putting on a real show for them. They laughed and joked as his arm was smoothly pushed down against the table. The referee clanged his glass again and quickly grabbed himself another drink while they prepared for round three.

Laurence frowned, he knew that he could beat the large man at ten percent now, but the man seemed like he was really trying, perhaps it would be harder if he used about five percent of his power. He was enjoying himself now, and the crowd seemed to be too. Once the referee came back he clanged his newly filled glass against the table and ushered in the third round. The two challengers once again strained their muscles and this time the boy was pushed back. It was slow and arduous, with Bill sweating and going slightly red in the face, but no one there really believed that he was having difficulty. They thought his acting was excellent. Finally the young boy’s arm hit the table and they called the round to a close. The crowd thought that now Bill was behind in the race he would simply swoop to victory three times in a row, making sure the crowd got their kicks even if they did not get the drink they could have.

The referee clanged his glass to signify round four and they once again began straining. Laurence used six percent of his power while Bill was really going all out. HIs muscles bunched and veins popped out prominently. Blood was flowing freely round his body trying to nourish his straining muscles, but the child in front of him was like a rock surface. He was immovable and impenetrable, and it was actually beginning to scare Bill. He already knew that whatever the outcome he would not be doing this with a child again. The hands went too and fro for several minutes, the crowd getting into the fight as much as possible. People cried and cheered when it went one way or the other until finally Jake and Trev walked back into the inn. Laurence saw them and to not arouse suspicion that he knew about their odd task he smiled at them as if he was oblivious. He lost concentration and his power dropped a little, allowing Bill to clinch the victory. People who were rooting for Bill cheered and the people who rooted for Laurence booed. To all eyes outside the challengers it was a close one.

“Bill, I have to leave now, I had fun with this and I will be back to finish it at some point in the future!” Laurence smiled at the thought of leaving the crowd with baited breath wondering who could have won. He did not know that they all thought that Bill would have won, but they had no idea how strong the boy actually was. Bill on the other hand wiped his brow and smiled at the thought that this ending was actually the best way to keep his reputation intact. He was the only one who knew how strong the boy really was, and vowed under his breath to never accept the challenge from a child again.

“Have fun lad, I’ll wait for you to become big and strong before I accept your challenge again.” This way at least he would have a reason to lose to the boy.

With that Laurence left the inn behind and got on the cart set up by the two guardsmen. They told Laurence that they were going to show him to the wall, which was the direction he wanted to go towards anyway. He and Yun hopped up on the back of the cart and once more left into the unknown.