Kauss, Killian, and Helona walked behind the man, Linux, toward his home. Apparently he didn't live too far away and was coming down to the machine to grab the devices and restart it. He carried the old man in his arms as they walked toward their destination. The old man was the grandfather of a man that lived in a town nearby. He wanted to help Linux with the machine, and he let him come along. As they were heading toward it, they were attacked by a beast and got separated. The monster followed Linux, and he managed to drive it away, but they got split up in return.

Kauss tried asking what the monster was, but Linux kept saying that he'd explain later. He worried that it was somewhere nearby and if they stayed out any longer than necessary then they'd be attacked. He made sure to slow down in order to keep Kauss and Helona in his eyesight. All he knew were their names, not what happened or how they got injured like that.

Linux made a mental note to ask when in a safer place. His curiosity of how the first floor worked intrigued him, and he was planning to barrage them with questions. No one could trump a human’s want for knowledge.

Kauss looked around and tried to spot the town from nearby. There was nothing near, however, and he could spot the tower's edge all around him. The tower's walls went all the way to the endless blue ceiling, then cut off as if the wall was separated from the top. The second floor looked just as massive as the first, if not a bit larger, but that could just be because of the empty space the floor had.

The fact he could see the surrounding walls made Kauss think that the floor may even be smaller, but that theory wasn't going to fool him. The walls were just so massive that they could be seen everywhere, no matter how far they were. Everywhere he looked the walls were visible, but he couldn't see every part of the floor until they got closer. The places he could barely see were just a tiny dot in the distance, and anything beyond that was invisible until they got closer.

After a few minutes of walking, Linux stopped them. Kauss took the moment to regain his composure, taking deep breaths and leaning on Helona to stay upright. He was dazed and the world spun around him. He was ready to pass out at any moment, but he forced himself to stay awake.

"We're almost there, but I'm afraid that we can't enter yet." Linux said.

"Why?" Helona asked desperately. She needed to get Kauss to a bed quickly, and they had no idea how much time was left before he collapsed.

Linux gently laid down the old man's corpse and pointed in front of him. Helona and Killian looked and saw someone standing a few feet away, waving as if welcoming them. Helona wondered why Linux was stopping since they were supposed to be heading to a town. However, he wasn't taking the welcome well. In response, he took out his staff and crouched into a fighting stance.

He grabbed the staff and crouched down in a running position. He stood on his toes, ready to jump out of the way, or toward the person at any moment. The person, seeing the stance, didn't stop waving. They actually increased the speed of their arm to the point it looked like a blur. They didn't take a step, nor did they take a defensive posture.

The more Helona looked, the more she began to suspect the person. Although they waved their arm in a fast pace, their body didn’t synchronize with the motion. If a person waved their hand at such a speed, then their body would move along with it. However, the person’s entire body was still, giving Helona goosebumps that only increased the more she looked. She squinted her eyes and could spot more details, or the lack thereof.

Helona couldn't tell if the person was male or female. The person's ginger hair was in the way and there was no defined feature that stood out. They wore a plain white dress, with no features what-so-ever. The more she looked, the more unnerved her feelings became. Whatever that person was, they weren't human.

The person stopped waving their hand and let it rest by their side. Standing still and staring at the four of them, almost as if studying them, the person stood with a ghostly stillness that only the dead could reciprocate. Linux gripped his staff tighter and prepared for a strike. He couldn't leave them because if he did then who knows what would happen. The old man died because they separated during the fight after all.

Finally, after a minute of stalemate, sharing glares with the opponent, the monster struck first. The person vanished under the ground, and all that was left there was a human sized hole. The ground rumbled and shook, the earth shifting more and more as the monster under the ground tunneled toward them. The earth shifting upset Kauss’ stomach to the point he began to vomit. Helona and Killian held him up as he vomited, his knees shaking from how weak they were.

Linux raised his staff and plunged it into the ground. With the palm of his hand, he pressed a button that was in the middle of the staff. It began glowing red and the middle section opened up, revealing one of the devices that came from the machine.

Helona, Killian, and Kauss stared at the vibrant, red glow coming from the staff. They didn't have the words for what they were seeing. The pure, unrelenting power the staff showed off made them all feel terrified and protected that the one wielding it was on their side. Killian was relieved that he didn't attack Linux back then. If he had, there would have been nothing left to tell if he was even human to begin with.

The glow began to manifest into a single, explosive force up and down the staff. Lightning ran along it, crackling against the metal and laughing at it's awakened destructive force. Linux pounded his fist against the end of the electrified weapon, sending it deeper into the ground and channeling the lightning at it's target.

The crimson lightning disappeared into the ground, sending dirt, grass, and plants flying. The lightning hit its target, and it howled a devilish and gargling cry from under the dirt and debris. Whatever it was, it took a massive amount of damage, forcing it to retreat from under the ground. The shaking earth slowed down and weakened until whatever was under there vanished completely.

Linux's staff stopped glowing and the section that was visible began to hide itself again. Once the container was covered by the staff's material, he grabbed it and yanked until it came loose. Brushing away any dirt and plant matter left on the staff, he placed it back where it belonged. He placed it through a loop on his pants and tightened it, but not so much that he couldn't grab it straightaway in case another attack went down.

He picked the old man back up and looked back at the three first floorers who were staring at him, eyes wide and mouths agape. Linux smiled slightly from their shocked expression, amused that someone could be so surprised about something so commonplace. They began moving again, but much more cautious for any strangers nearby that looked out of place.

After another minute of walking, Linux stopped again, but he wasn't on guard. This time a smile stretched from his lips as he stared off into nothing. The place that he was looking at looked very standard comparing it to the rest of the floor. Trees, more grass, and even more plants were ahead of them, nothing too important to be excited about.

Linux turned around just to see their reaction when the revelation came to them. He wasn't going to miss a single instance of it. He needed to be distracted from what he needed to do because of the responsibility handed to him. Sometimes someone just needs to have fun in order to get distracted from reality.

"We're here." Linux shouted hoping for the response he desired.

Helona looked around and didn't spot anything. There was no house, no building, and not even a fire. The entire place just looked like everything else to her. She didn't realize one thing, however. The tower’s energy can be used for more than just making weapons and generating power.

Linux laughed at her confused look. Killian didn’t have any interesting reaction, only yawning without any emotion on his face. He most likely just took things as they came and Linux waved the non-existent surprise away. He wasn't too worried about Kauss' reaction either since at the moment he wouldn't be able to give much of one anyway.

Linux turned back around and walked forward a few steps. Helona stared in shock and surprise as he disappeared from thin air. She had no idea what was going on anymore since she climbed the tower. First the massive monster inside that room, then the monsters inside the floor, Linux's staff, and now people could vanish at will? Her brain was fried as she thought how that was even possible.

Linux's head appeared from nowhere and a grin was plastered on his face. He waved for them to come forward and disappeared back into whatever he was behind. Helona didn't know what was happening, but she had to follow them. If she didn't then Kauss would be in even more danger.

Killian grabbed onto Kauss' other side and looked at Helona. They knew that they had no choice but to continue forward. They walked until they came to the spot that Linux disappeared from. With one hesitant step, they stepped forward hoping that it wouldn’t be the final decision they made.

A slight, but soothing shock spread across their body. Helona's spine tingled as she went through. She found it hard to keep Kauss up due to the pleasure running down her back. Killian felt the pleasure spread through him as well, but he wasn’t going to show that on his face. He wasn't much for showing emotion until something made him angry. Kauss moaned a bit, but otherwise he was still at the point of unconsciousness.

As they went through, they saw Linux with a grin on his face. Helona gasped at the sight as the pieces came together to help her figure out how the entire town managed to become invisible. Linux looked up toward the ceiling as if presenting a prize that he took great pride into showing off.

"Welcome to Felxin!." Linux shouted.

Over the entire town was a large, blue dome that covered every inch above the town, Felxin. It wasn't a standard dome either. The blue color came from electricity shooting from several devices that were linked onto four poles. Those poles were then connected to a central point at the very top of the electrical dome.

At the top of the dome, a device, much larger than the others that they had seen up to that point, was connecting the poles together while shooting electric currents out of exits built into it. The electricity would then descend the poles, getting weaker as it descended, but the devices at certain intervals of the poles took in the electricity and re-powered it up. It then shot the electricity downward again, but also to the next device on a separate pole, creating the dome that surrounded the town.

Helona had no idea how the town did this, or even how they knew to do it, and the fact that they managed to figure it all out stunned her.

"How?" Killian asked first.

"I'll explain later." Linux said. He moved the old man in order to point toward a house at the edge of the town. "That's my place. Go there and make sure no one spots you. People here don't really like first floorers. I'm going to bring the man back to his family and come back."

Linux headed toward the town, giving Helona and the others time to look around as they walked to his home. The entire town was incredibly small compared to the city on the first floor. People came in and out of houses, unafraid of a potential crime that could happen if unaware. Considering that Linux had such a weapon, Helona guessed everyone else had at least one in possession as well. If that's the case then it would be too much trouble to try to steal or kill people without the victim putting up a fight.

The entire town was surrounded by a circle of grass and plants, almost as if it was a ritualistic circle to contain it. Helona could hear the faint noises of insects and could see several of them among the grass and air. Some even flew like that creature they saw when they came up the floor.

There were no towering buildings like the skyscrapers on the first floor. The largest building was in the middle of the town, but even that was smaller than the mansion by at least half. Everything was clean and there was no trace of mold or musk anywhere. The entire place seemed to be the paradise that the tower was hiding.

Helona lowered her head and stopped thinking that as she remembered the old man and monster outside. This place may look and feel like a paradise, but it carried it's demons as a trophy just like the first floor. It was just much better at masking it.

They made it to Linux's home and opened the door. Surprisingly it wasn't locked, so they entered without any resistance. When entering, Helona realized why it wasn't locked. There was nothing inside worth stealing. The living room was bare, and as they walked through the house, the rest rooms looked nearly identical to one another.

The kitchen? Nothing but a stove and sink. The bathroom? Nothing but a toilet and another sink. As they approached the bedroom down a hallway that was next to the bathroom, the walls were bare and had no style or substance. There was nothing that said who Linux was as a person.

Helona was fine with that - most people would do that on the first floor in order to deter people from trying to find secrets and personal information to blackmail them, but she assumed it would be somewhat different on this floor. The city seemed peaceful enough, and they built a society that looked like it valued protecting their inhabitants. What does she know though? She’s barely even been on the floor for more than an hour.

Killian opened the bedroom door and entered. Just like everything else, the room was bare, containing nothing to ascertain Linux as a person. It had more personality from the rest of the place, however, since besides a bed there was a cabinet at the end of the room filled with empty devices. However, they already knew he was a fan of those gadgets from what he was doing outside the town.

They laid Kauss on the bed, and he began snoring straight away. His skin was pale and sweat poured out of his pores, making his skin glisten in the bedroom light. Helona lifted his shirt and saw that the stitches were holding up fine. Breathing a sigh of relief, she dropped down to her knees, groaning. So much had happened recently to the point where she just wanted to sleep for a week straight. She found out there were indeed humans living up the tower, but that didn't eliminate the strangeness of it all. In fact it brought up more questions as to why they were here and how they managed to figure out all the stuff about the electricity when they couldn’t on the first floor.

"What should we do?" Helona asked, exhausted.

"Simple," Killian answered. "We just wait till Linux gets back. He knows much more about this place than we do so we can get answers from him."

Helona nodded and sat beside Kauss’ sleeping figure. She leaned down and kissed his forehead. He moved slightly from the touch, ruffling the bed and messing up the white sheets. She couldn't stop worrying for his safety. If he was infected with something, which he looked like he was, then she needed to find out what it was then find a cure right away. All they had to do was wait for Linux.

Linux walked throughout the town with the body of the old man in his hands. As people walked about the streets, they saw him carrying the body with no worries being seen. They moved out of the way and let him pass without complaint, lowering their heads and hats for the fallen man. Linux was covered in the old man’s blood for carrying him for so long, but he didn't mind. There were more things important than his clothes getting dirty.

He walked down the street with the constant fear of what would happen when he brought the body. He knew the family rather well since the old man's son usually helped Linux from time to time. Even his grandson would try to help, but was always turned down due to his age.

This wasn't the first time he had to report about someone dying. It became common among the people that helped him, and the volunteers knew good and well what they were getting into. Just because they knew the risks, however, that doesn't mean their loved ones should have to care.

He remembered a year ago when he had to bring back the body of a woman to her husband and daughter. He remembered the constant tears and curses that lashed him from their grief. They didn't care who Linux was and what his family did for the entire floor. They didn’t care that the woman was the one that came up to him and asked to help him. All that mattered to them at the moment was the fact a person they loved had died.

He found the home and walked up to the door. Taking a deep and thoughtful breath, he stayed outside for a few precious seconds, then knocked. He heard people moving from the inside. Linux imagined them getting closer to the door, making his chest tighten as their reactions raced through his mind, making him even more anxious.

The door opened and out stepped the old man's son. He was in his mid twenties and was a caring son, husband, and father. As soon as Linux saw his face, his chest tightened so much it felt like his heart had been crushed. The man looked at his dead Dad and tears began dripping down his cheeks. Linux held out his hands, and the man took his father's body. He wasn’t prepared for it, so his arms nearly gave out as he was handed the body.

His father still had color to him. His skin was still vibrant and full of vigor that just looking at the face alone could fool a person into thinking the man was asleep. However, just looking down a bit more toward the injuries, and feeling the cold death that froze anyone touching it, confirmed the fact that there was no bringing him back.

As he cried over the corpse, the man's wife came into view from behind him. Linux hoped their kid was at school at the moment before he showed up. The kid never showed, so he could be relieved for that at least.

Linux waited for the backlash he would inevitably receive. He decided to take it straight on and just cry in bed before sleeping. He knew that if they didn't release all their anger and sadness on him at that moment, then they'd bottle those feelings up which wasn't good for anyone.

Yet the yelling never came and the entire town lived in silence. They cried their hearts out and that was their true feelings. They had none of the hatred and anger Linux was expecting, just sadness and longing. The man and his wife leaned on each other, comforting themselves for their loss.

Before they closed the door and went through the preparations of burying him, the man looked up at Linux. He didn't say anything to him, but he did nod with his tears drying up. He closed the door and Linux was left by himself. People that were watching started heading to their destinations again so he decided to do the same.

He walked back toward his house while staring up at the electric dome that covered the eccentric town. He remembered hearing about how his great-great-grandfather built the dome that covered the town. He took such pride in that since one of his ancestors single handedly saved millions, if not billions, of lives. Yet despite that, why did he feel the way he did?

He took massive pride from his family's history, and he even carried on their name by using and improving the systems they set up. He did everything he could to keep the legacy alive, but there was nothing else for them anymore. His ancestors already made history and there was nothing left for him to put his own name on.

Why did he feel that way? He drove people to their deaths and watched as families greaved and cried over bodies of the dead, but something else was calling for him. The deaths all had to be for something. Yet as he continued living, there was nothing that called to him on the floor. As days passed by, he brushed closer and closer with death. He was nearly eaten alive a few minutes ago by the monster that killed the man.

His knowledge and curiosity peaked on this floor. There was nothing else waiting for him, and everyone knew it. However, they didn’t want him to leave either, so they gave his family the duty of inventors. That way they would be forced to stay and keep up the work that they had been doing for generations. His feelings didn’t matter. His desire to climb the tower and discover knew things didn’t matter. The people that he was born with mattered.

There had to be some way to keep them safe for generations. If there was, he would find it. He wanted to climb the tower and satisfy his own curiosity and knowledge, but his good heart and duty kept him from doing so. He had to discover a way, and the first floorers could be the answer he was searching for.