When Lyden saw the two aretisites, he felt how powerless he was before other hunters.

Around two years ago, as soon as he awakened, he signed up for a hunter permit, but he never got the chance to test his aretisite nor enter a tower.

Before he could, he lent his only aretisite to one of his friends. His friend gained his aretisite a few days before him. He was a 1-star hunter and was planning to leave the town to head to a nearby city to raid a tower. He wanted to borrow Lyden's aretisite because he felt safer if he brought along a 2-stars aretisites to his first raid.

Sadly, his friend died that day and Lyden lost his aretisite.

Until this moment, Lyden dream of becoming a true hunter never died. It was because of his hunter permit and this what gave him a chance to find a new aretisite.

In the towers, there were not only rare materials but also wild aretisites that could be obtained.

Even more, today was his last chance to enter one because his permit expired the next day. Hunters need to renew their permit every two years and to do so, they needed proof. One was the sigil everyone had, and an aretisite to go along with it.

Lyden stared at the black tower before him and then back at to his fellow teammates. He knew as soon as he told them the truth, they would kick him out.

"Alright, let's go. They gave us the okay." Soon after the small argument between Terry and Maina, one of the solider informed Gary, the leader of the team, that it was their turn to enter soon.

Lyden was glad because he did not need to show them his aretisite that he did not have.

They walked towards the tower and waited. The entrance of the tower did not have a door, but a thin blue barrier in front of the giant gaping hole.

"That barrier time is about to expire. The other team should be able to exit soon." One of his teammate, who was beside Lyden, said. She had short blonde hair with a confident look on her face.

"The barrier?"

"Yeah. This is your first time entering a tower, right?"

Lyden nodded.

"Every time someone or a group enters, a barrier appears blocking anyone from entering or exiting. However, it is important that the barrier stays up."

"Why is that?"

"Because if it does not, monsters would come out from the other side. Did you heard about the incident that happened in New Mexico around three years ago?"

Lyden easily recalled that incident. It was the day that hundreds of monsters came out of the tower after hunters abandoned it after finding out that the tower was a desert with next to none resources.

Since no hunters wanted to enter it, hundreds of monsters came out from the other side to earth.

The government tried to salvage the situation back then by hiring top-ranked hunters to eliminate the monsters, however, it was too late.

Back then, there were not enough hunters to handle the situation, thus, New Mexico was overtaken by monsters and hundreds of thousands of people had died.

To this day, monsters have still populated that state.

"I do. But I did not know it had something to do with the barrier."

"The barrier had to be kept active every 12 hours. And the only way to do so if someone with a sigil on their body enters."

"The sigil? What does it have to do with the barrier?"

"As of this day, we do not know much. Well, in any case, us hunters, need to keep the barrier by rotating every 12 hours. Do your best and try not to die in there."

She ended her conversation and walked away to talk to one of her teammates.

Lyden did not get a chance to ask her name, but he will have more chances to ask.

The thin barrier was weakening to the point that small blue particles floated into the air until the barrier completely vanish.

They waited before entering for the first team to come out.

After several minutes, they realize something was wrong. No one was coming out of the tower.

"Why is no one coming out?" Terry asked Gary. It was almost always a bad sign if no one exit. This made Terry somewhat anxious. "If we enter now, the previous team won't able to exit for another 12 hours."

"I know." Gary was getting worried. As the team leader, he had to make a decision. If he let the barrier open to long, it left the chances of monsters running out of the tower.

However, if they entered now, they could be trapping the previous team.

Gary only took seconds before deciding.

"Alright, team. We will now enter. I want all of you to survive through this. Do not be greedy, and do not wander by yourself. We will get plenty of chances to explore the tower again. Stay alive for 12 hours, and only then, we can return home when the barrier opens up once again." Gary gave a warning speech to all his teammates. He had lost many teammates due to greed and did not want to see that happen again.

Lyden was nervous as well as excited. He followed the rest of the team as they step towards the entrance of the tower.

When Lyden entered, he could not see anything in front of him. There was a thick fog through and through.

He walked what seems like miles until he could not see the light behind him. The only thing that guided him through the fog was the wall next to him. He placed his hand against the wall and walked carefully. He did not let go until he saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

There he saw five people waiting for him. It was his teammate.

"What took you so long? We have been waiting for years over here." It was the blonde woman from before.

Lyden gave a light smile to her exaggerated comment.

Lyden saw the scenery before them. It was a luscious forest, however, instead of green leaves, it was purple. Even the grass had a hint of purple in them.

The blue sky reflecting off the purple leave gave a dazzling sparkle, unlike any gems.

"It is weird, right? Unlike our earth, things exist that does not much sense to us exist in these towers." The blond girl said as she stared at the magical scenery.

Lyden nodded in agreement. He was also breathtaking by the view.

"By the way, I never get the chance to ask you for your name."

"Oh, right. I never introduce myself. I'm Cindy. Call for my help anytime." She giggled.

"Enough chit-chat, let's go," Maina said.

The six of them headed towards the purple forest.