"Throughout the millennia, the nature of many Floor Tests have drastically evolved. From simple brutish trials which favored pure physical or magical might and strength of will over any sort of strength of the mind, to tests which would require a more rounded approach in order to solve them. Seekers nowadays must hone their minds alongside their bodies, they must be clever and resourceful, ready to adapt to anything in order to Ascend. Obviously great physical or magical might is still plenty valuable, as few puzzles can stand before truly overwhelming power."

- From one of Prof. Beauregard Reginald's seminars for Seekers.

Eden Floor 1:

As the four of us neared Weir we encountered a man standing in the middle of the road, I'd originally planned to just walk by him as he seemed to be ignoring us but both Amelia and Ars reached out to stop me from continuing on.

"What?" I ask, looking back at the two of them. She's actually left the comfort of Kuro's arms in order to come stand on her own beside me.

"What if he's some sort of bandit? I could be kidnapped, or worse!" Amelia hisses at us, her delicate eyebrows scrunched in concern.

"A bandit?!," I gasp in mock horror, before rolling my eyes, wondering how she'd even gotten that sort of impression from the man who was even now just standing there. "Isn't it more likely that he's just waiting for someone?"

"It's the height of foolishness to risk oneself for no reason, and this is exactly the kind of situation I keep Kuro around for," she glares back at me as if I'm the one suddenly being unreasonable. Kuro steps forward, coming to stand slightly ahead of us.

I don't have an immediate reply to that seeing as a lot of people would probably say I have a habit of doing exactly what she just said, though I'd like to think that something as mundane as a supposed bandit wouldn't qualify as a "risk" to me. Confronting your problems "golem first" so-to-speak is still likely a wiser course of action than I'm typically prone to, it just seems a bit unprovoked in this case.

"Surely you don't intend to have Kuro attack him unprovoked? Banditry hardly deserves death," Ars steps in, mimicking my thoughts while somehow also being convinced the man before us is a bandit, thankfully he at least seems to have an aversion to assaulting random strangers on the side of the road.

"Banditry may not deserve death but having designs upon the heiress of the Felaine family certainly does," she's getting more and more into it, it seems. "But, I accede that it would taint my noble image to have Kuro simply attack him indiscriminately and without provocation. Kuro! Go stand in front of him, menacingly." And with a decisive gesture from Amelia, Kuro continues on alone down the road.

I'm lost momentarily at the sudden and irrational escalation of things, Ars and Amelia both have maintained a pretty carefree and unburdened persona up to this point. The sudden distrust they have seems out of place and is a bit jarring to me, weren't we all strangers just a few hours ago? But at the same time I feel like it'd be unfair to just dismiss their concerns outright. As the daughter and heiress of an allegedly very wealthy and influential family, it'd make sense for Amelia to be a potential target of some unscrupulous people, perhaps it'd happened before or perhaps a paranoid family member had just warned her to be careful of such things. And though Ars hasn't really shared anything about his family background, nor does it seems like he intends to anytime soon, it's obvious that it isn't simple either. Still, even if their concerns aren't unfounded, I can't help but feel as if they're overreacting.

I tense up a little as Kuro gets closer and closer to the man, but as he eventually closes in and comes to stop before him I can't help but start to find the situation rather comical. Despite Kuro standing in what I guess you could call a vaguely threatening posture just a few paces away, the man continues his silent vigil, clearly trying his best to ignore Kuro's faceless mien.

As seconds turn to minutes and my companions go from their initial tense expressions to feeling more and more awkward I can't help but to chime in unhelpfully, "Hmm, it's almost as if he's waiting for someone isn't it?"

"Ok fine! He's probably not a bandit," Amelia crosses her arms and begrudgingly admits with a sigh, unwilling to meet my eyes.

"Why's he just, y'know?" Ars mutters with a vague gesture, seemingly at a loss at the mans ability to just continuously ignore people and things right in front of him.

"Lets go say hi," I say as I start walking before the others can stop me, there's a brief moment of panic from the two of them before I hear the tentative sounds of footsteps following behind me.

"Hihi~" I call out with a wave as we approach, the stern looking man before us remains locked in place but I see his eyes briefly glance down to take the three of us in as we approach.

The man before us is dressed in what I can only describe as a wealthy martial artists outfit; a skintight black shirt covers a well muscled torso, sleeveless arms sit tightly crossed in front of his chest and I notice a latticework of scars covering his forearms before disappearing into the bandages wrapping his hands. A vibrant red belt encircles his waist and lower abdomen, the ends of which hang loosely down his side, I see them flash with intricate golden patterns as a breeze causes it to catch in the sunlight. Baggy black pants patterned with golden flowers I don't recognize trail down the sides of his legs, vaguely giving the impression of a vast starry sky leading down to the wrappings around his calves and feet. His hair is dark, short, and unkempt but kept from his face, his eyes are a muddy red and seem to be set in a permanent glare. All in all he gives off a very stern and unyielding impression, and though he's ignoring us I can tell by the tenseness of his stance that he's ready to act at a moments notice if need be.

As we all come to a stop before him, though his eyes flicker over us all once more he still doesn't reply to my greeting.

"Maybe he's shy?" Amelia offers quietly (but not quietly enough that he can't hear) with a pitying look at the guy.

"Or he's-" I start saying.

"-constipated," Ars finishes and I look over at him incredulously.

"-I was going to say mute. How is- Why is that even the first thing you think of??"

"I don't know! Just look at him, surely he doesn't always glare like that," Ars tries to defend himself, gesturing at the mans scowling face.

I don't know what to say to that, the mans face does seem to bear an unnaturally grim expression. But that could simply be because we've been speaking loud enough for him to hear everything we'd said since approaching, in spite of that, he still seems intent on refusing to communicate with us. I glance behind him where I can see various domed structures peaking through the trees, we were nearly to Weir it seemed. So why was another Seeker just standing out on the road instead of immediately going into town?

"Are you waiting for someone?" I verbalize my previous guess once more, which surprisingly elicits a small nod in response.

"Well mystery solved then," says Amelia, pushing past us, figuratively and literally putting the whole situation behind her. I feel like she's somehow disappointed that the man wasn't in fact, a bandit. Though I'm not sure if it's simply because she detests being proven wrong or if she was just bored and wanted the excitement running into a bandit would've brought.

Regardless, with one last glance at the strange man, we pushed onwards, steadily closing in on the town of Weir.

-o-o-o-

In retrospect, it may have been more fitting to call Weir a compound of sorts than an actual town. I couldn't really tell before with the forest in the way but now that we were finally here the so called town was more like a single continuous structure, rather than individual buildings divided by roads like I tended to expect when I heard the word "town". Large circular platforms stood raised off of the forest's floor and even over the edges of the lake, the platforms were supported by large stone-looking pillars, some of which seemed to have been carved out and served as lifts between the upper and lower tiers of the town. Some of the platforms were covered by large glass domes while others remained open to the air, their tops covered in soil in which the various trees and plants of the forest grew in intricate and beautiful gardens. The platforms were scattered about seemingly at random, some connected directly to one another in overlapping patterns and near concentric circles while others towered above or rested below each other. I could even see now how parts of the waterfall had been diverted off from the cliff face, flowing in small streams and rivulets, splitting repeatedly before continuing on to cascade down from one platform to the next all the way until it reached the vibrant blue lake below. The mists of the water continuously falling off the final platform somehow made a constant rainbow appear out over top of the tranquil looking lake. Walkways and bridges and stairs connected the platforms together in winding intricate pathways, leading to and from the various domed and open-air structures that likely made up the various shops and housing of the town.

Directly before us the path rose up in a gradual ramp to meet with the lowest of the platforms making up the town, while the forest floor continued sloping down to deepest part of the valley below. We all took a moment to pause and take in the sight of our destination before ascending the path and officially entering the town.

"Well, time to figure out what the Floor Test is going to be." Amelia says as we crest the top of the path and look around once more. Around us lays a simple stone courtyard, trees grow from soil filled gaps in the stone below, providing shade to the many empty benches that sit scattered beneath them. There were maybe two dozen other Seekers here aside from us, "it seems we're some of the first Seekers to arrive, I suppose I should thank you Sola."

"No kidding, I was really getting sick of walking around those woods before you showed up." Ars slumps down into a nearby bench, turning his puppy dog eyes to me in thanks.

I scoff in response, grabbing a seat beside him, "I seem to remember having something thrown at me the second I spoke to you?"

"A-ahem, well all that matters now is that we're here," his gaze roams over the others occupying the platform with us, sitting in various states of boredom or rest, all but a few keep to themselves. His gaze stops briefly on a few that stand out amongst their surrounding peers, before he continues to look around, "should we go and speak to anyone? It looks like we're meant to be waiting here for something."

Amelia's sat down next to me in the shade and is already immersed in reading her book.

And while I hadn't meant to ignore Ars, my attention had been inadvertently drawn to something much more important. Though I still couldn't call it back to me, I felt my connection to my sword suddenly re-establish itself. I had no idea how that had happened, but I was certainly happy it wasn't outright destroyed or lost forever in the void. But just as suddenly as the connection appeared it vanished again, leaving me frowning behind my mask. I could only assume that someone found it and had somehow placed it somewhere I couldn't sense it. Oh well though, as long as I got close enough to it at some point I could call it back, it didn't even matter where it was. Still, I resolved to go looking for it as soon as possible. It wasn't quite as fulfilling, to set off on a grand adventure without a weapon at your side, was it?

I turned back to Ars, but before I could reply, a feminine voice called out seemingly from nowhere, "Greetings Seekers, we thank those of you who've been waiting here patiently. Though many are still lost in the woods, we will be beginning the Floor Test immediately."

No sooner had she said that than numerous golden orbs of light began drifting down from the sky towards all of the Seekers present, causing a few of them to panic as the orbs flew up to and then proceeded to merge into the backs of their left hands, despite their best attempts to keep the small orbs of light away. Once everyone on the platform had an orb merge with them, far more of the orbs shot out into the surrounding forests, no doubt planting themselves within all the Seekers yet to arrive. I could only imagine how some of them would react to a strange orb of light randomly flying out of the woods before embedding itself in their bodies.

"Now, if you'd all be so obedient as to turn your hand palm up and focus on them. I will begin explaining the test to you all."

I turn my hand palm up as instructed, like everyone else around me and am surprised when a small screen pops up once I focused on the center of my palm.

Attack: 1 Defense: 1 Wins: 0 / 35 Penalty: 0 / 7

"This screen will keep track of your progress and stats for the duration of the test," the unseen woman in the sky continues on, seemingly coming from nowhere but it looks like a few have realized that there's something invisible hovering in the sky above us. Ars and Amelia both seem to have figured it out as well.

"Now to explain: Every day for the next 6 weeks, you must challenge one other Seeker. Pitting your attack against their defense. If your attack is higher, you win! If it's lower, then you don't win. Simple right? Oh and don't worry, you're all starting with the same stats for now."

Various people nod and voice their agreement at the obviously rhetorical question, while others wait patiently to hear the rest of the details before getting carried away.

"If you get 35 wins by the end of the 6 week period then congratulations, you get to ascend to the next floor. But, you can only get one win per day, and if you fail to win 7 days in a row...Well-" her tone of voice turns vicious, "we have special penalty tests prepared just for those poor little underachievers to make up for their missed wins."

I don't think I like the tone of her voice at all, looking around me though, it seems like some people are already planning to just take it easy and try their luck at the so called "Penalty Test". Glancing over at Ars and Amelia I'm glad to see their mocking gazes directed towards the people who seem to think the penalty test will give them an easy pass to the second floor.

"Fools." Amelia mutters, turning her gaze back to the sky above.

"Now that you all know the basics, I'll break down some of the more particular aspects of the test.

"Everyone must challenge one Seeker each day, if someone goes 3 days over the course of the test without challenging anyone then they immediately fail.

"You also must accept any challenges, so long as someone is within 6 feet of you they can choose to challenge you. People who've beaten you before can't challenge you again though.

"Losing won't directly count against you but if you've lost to someone once, you won't be allowed to challenge that person. So lose to too many people and you won't have enough people left to challenge in order to pass."

The test was interesting, on the surface it looked simple and straightforward, but it seemed like there'd be a lot of mind games at play between the participating Seekers. What was stopping people from ganging up on others? Or selling wins? Or betraying each other?

Uncaring for my internal pondering, the voice continues on, "Now to get into increasing or trading your stats; for the duration of the test, Weir will act as a hub for all of the participating Seekers. There will be an assortment of challenges, quests, and jobs to undertake within and around Weir that will reward specific stat points. For example, a quest to go hunt down a creature or a challenge to navigate a trapped room may reward an Attack or Defense point respectively. Alternatively Seekers themselves can choose to trade a single stat point away once per day, this can be done freely or upon completion of a task you both agree upon. Remember though, while you can receive stats from others multiple times in a day, you can only give a single stat point away each day. To trade you must press your left palms together with the person you wish to trade with, both of your stat screens will pop up between you and you'll be prompted on whether to trade Attack or Defense."

And that was the twist wasn't it? What's stopping the person you go to trade with from immediately challenging you once they've seen they can beat your current stats? The only solace was that the same person couldn't challenge you more than once after beating you, so in theory you could somewhat safely form alliances between people who'd all lost or won against one another. But how many people would be willing to just let things go like that?

With one last wish of good luck to us all, the voice went silent causing everyone to warily look at those around them, their gazes turning calculating. No doubt already plotting what they thought was the best way to pass.

"I think the test isn't as simple as just the rules we've been told," I say to my companions.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Ars asks from where he's seated next to me, "we should just-"

"We?" Amelia scoffs, "Didn't you listen to the same explanation, this test is clearly designed for everyone to look out for themselves above all else. You should decide what you're going to do, I am going to go see if I can find where in Weir the quests and challenges are posted."

She gets up to start walking off but I call out to stop her, "Amelia wait, I know the test sounds like it's encouraging all sorts of manipulation and backstabbing but I think Ars was right in saying we, we should stick together. Look I'll explain more later, but for now let me trade one of my attack points to you. Then you can go and challenge someone else for a free win, afterwards trade my point to Ars and he'll go and do the same before giving my attack point back."

"But I can only trade the one attack point back to you, you won't be able to go challenge anyone with that." Ars joins Amelia and I standing up.

"It's fine, I'm hoping to have the two of you help me complete a challenge as fast as possible so I can use the reward from that to get my win for today." I explain, reaching out to take Amelia's hand from where she stands beside me. Though she seems reluctant, she ultimately doesn't protest and takes my point from me.

-o-o-o-

It had been a bit of a gamble, betting on the lack of trust most of the other Seekers would have for each other. I figured they wouldn't have traded with each other at all, let alone trading defense this early. So after Amelia's and then Ars' triumphant return, I was glad to see that my simple plan had paid off. After that we'd left the starting platform, taking one of the lifts up to one of the higher levels of Weir in search of where the various quests and challenges would be posted. It took a bit of searching, but upon arriving at one platform, topped by a large domed pavilion of sorts with a large pillar in the center of it, we saw how the pillar was covered in screens that listed all sorts of things to do on them as well as the rewards. Now we just had to pick something to do first and then with the reward I could catch back up to my companions in wins.

It may have been easier to complete this test through backstabbing, and betraying, and taking advantage of everyone around me as much as possible. But I wanted to avoid something like that, both for myself and for my new companions. My path was already lonely enough, I didn't want to ascend Eden by making an enemy of everyone around me.

"Let's start this adventure off on a good note," I say to myself with a smile.

Attack: 1 Defense: 1 Wins: 0 / 35 Penalty: 0 / 7