"I've finally reached the top floor" Heat looks around casually as his feet leave the staircase and touches the black marble floor.

It's been many years since Heat opened the gates to the tower's first floor. At long last, he's made it to the last floor.

"Screeeeeeech!!" With the deafening sound of metal scraping against metal exploding forth, the ground begins to expand as the final floor's guardian rises up from the ground.

Heat looks up and sees the gargantuan golem that is beginning to take form from boulders and unknown metals. The final floor's guardian being a thousand times bigger than Heat, has its entire body marked with glowing ancient runes.

"This is the 1000th floor's guardian?" Heat lets out a bittersweet sigh as he realized that his journey up the tower is finally coming to a close.

"RAWFAGGWGDSGNX" A mix of impossible sounds come rumbling out of the golem's mouth as it sends out an intimidation roar at Heat.

"Begone!" With a slow wave of his sword, Heat sends out a sword wave that rushes toward the golem. In a split second, before the golem even had a chance to attack, it was already split in two.

After the sword wave passed through it, the glow of the runes marking the golem fades and the two halves come crashing down.

A few minutes passed, the surrounding became deathly silent as there was no sound or movement. Heat furrowed his eyebrows in suspicion, every time a floor's guardian was killed its body would disintegrate and the treasure it was guarding would appear. Yet now, the golem's body was clearly still there.

"It can't be. It's still alive?" With curiosity compelling Heat, he walks toward the heap of rocks and metals.

As Heat approaches the pile of broken golem pieces, he reaches toward a piece of metal to examine it. Right when Heat's finger touches the piece of the golem, the runes on every piece shine and exude an aura of power.

Heat reacts immediately and rushes to retreat, in a split second he's already leaped away the distance of a few hundred meters.

The space around the golem warps into a vortex that sucks in all the pieces of the golem and condenses into one tiny white ball of light floating in the air.

"YOU HAVE DONE WELL TO HAVE REACHED THE FINAL FLOOR! EVEN THOUGH YOU WERE NEVER SELECTED TO CLIMB THE TOWER, IN RECOGNITION OF YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS YOUR SIN SHALL BE PARDONED!"

This booming voice came from the white ball of light and in the moment after the voice finished its words, Heat's vision disappeared. Everything turned white and Heat lost consciousness.

-------

"What happened?" Heat's head was aching as he sat up and looked around. He was on top of an old bed inside a bamboo shack that contained nothing but a couple of stools.

Just as he was about to get up, the cloth on the doorway shifted and a sturdy young boy around the age of 16, came in holding a bowl of porridge.

"Grandpa, he woke up!" Screamed the young boy as he put down the bowl of porridge and rushed out of the shack. A moment later, an old man came into the shack with the young boy.

The old man had many wrinkles on his face; he seemed frail yet full of life at the same time. The skin on his hands was loose but healthy.

"See grandpa, he's awake!" Leading in the old man, the boy spoke with excitement. "Now I can stop playing nurse right?"

"Settle down Min" The old man was patting the shoulder of the young boy as he moved his focus on to Heat.

"How are you feeling young man?"

Heat stared straight into the old man's eyes as confusion was written on his face. Heat had no idea what was going on, a feeling of absolute ignorance embodied Heat.

"Who are you? Where am I?"

Without waiting for the old man to answer, the young boy said "You're in our firewood shack; you've been laying there for 2 weeks sleeping. My grandpa found you unconscious at the river bank"

With a smile, the old man interrupted the young boy "My name is Fang Lest, this is my grandson Min Lest. What is your name young man?"

"I don't know" answered Heat. "I don't remember much of anything prior to waking up. I can't recall where I am, or who I am"

With a troubled look on his face, Fang Lest whispered: "That's troubling if you don't remember anything how will you return home?"

"Maybe he can stay with us until he remembers grandpa. Big brother can help me hunt for food in the forest" Min Lest persuaded his grandpa as he looked at Heat.

"Since you've got no memories and nowhere else to go for the time being, would you like to stay with us?"

Heat looked around, he truly had nowhere to go and no clue what to do. Since the two in front of him were kind enough to save his life and offer him an invitation to stay, he chose to accept.

"Yes, I would like to stay"

"Great! We can go hunting tomorrow, but what should we call him if he doesn't even remember his name grandpa?"

"Since you will be joining our family, let's call you Quanye. Quanye Lest" Fang Lest picked up the bowl of porridge and handed it to Heat. "Eat. I know you probably have a lot of questions for me but we can discuss more after you gather your strength"

Throughout the evening, Heat discussed with Fang Lest about anything he could think of and Fang Lest imparted what knowledge he thought would be important to know. They live in Grey Grass Village that has about 100 families scattered at the base of Spike Mountain. Most families survive by farming, foraging, fishing, or hunting.

Every day Fang Lest would tend to his rice field that barely spans half an acre, it was while going to get water from the river that Fang Lest found Heat. Min Lest would go into Spike Mountain every day to forage and hunt, thus maintaining a sturdy build even with only 16 years of age.

Most areas that are not occupied by humans have the danger of containing Demonic Beasts. Demonic beasts range from class 1-9 and are much stronger than normal wild animals since they contain Beast Cores. Spike Mountain is a mountain range containing dense forestry and rarely would a class 1 Demonic Beast be spotted.

As dawn broke, Heat heard the voice of Min Lest as he came rushing into his shack.

"Let's go, big brother! We need to head out early so that we can spot any animals that come out foraging for food. Hopefully, we can catch a few hares so that we can get some meat"

Heat got up and quickly was dragged out of his shack by Min Lest. As they made their way toward the forest, the flowing sound of water quickly came into Heat's ears as a river wider than 10 meters came into view.

Heat approached a nearby water bank that had slow flowing, almost still water and looked at his own reflection. Appearing to be around 18 years of age, he was a dashing young man with finger length ink-black hair and crystal clear brown eyes.

"This is where grandpa found you a couple weeks ago big brother. You looked like you got washed up on to this water bank"

Trying to remember, Heat silently stared at his own reflection in the water.

"Let's go, big brother, there's almost no fish here. We should go into the forest and see if we can find some edible plants or animals" With a gluttonous smile Min Lest ran further as he gestured for Heat to follow.

Their hike into Spike Mountain was quick and efficient as Heat followed behind Min Lest who seemed familiar with the forest paths.

"By the way big brother, when we found you all you had were some tattered pants and a ring on your hand. I changed your clothes into my old clothes but I was not able to remove that ring. I didn't want to use too much force as to not hurt you but what is that ring and why does it stick to your finger?"

Heat looked at his hands and indeed, just as Min Lest said; there was a thin black ring on his left index finger. It felt so natural wearing it that Heat did not even notice it yesterday. Rather than feeling like he was wearing an accessory, it felt more like an extension of his body.

"I don't know, I don't remember how I got this ring or who gave it to me"

As Heat replied, he tried to take off the ring and it came off easily.

"Wow, you're able to take it off? Can you give it to me to have a closer look?" With big eyes, Min Lest came closer and extended his hands towards Heat.

Before Min Lest could come close enough to touch the ring, Heat put it back on to his finger.

"I'm not sure why, but it feels more comfortable wearing it" Extending his left arm toward Min Lest, he showed him the ring while wearing it on his finger.

"It feels smooth and mystical big brother" Min Lest rubbed the ring and tried to take it off Heat's finger. "How come only you're able to take it off? When I try to, it seems to stick on to you"

"I don't know" Heat shook his head as he looked confused.

Putting the mysterious ring in the back of his mind, Heat ventured deeper into the forest with Min Lest.