Seeing the tower up close again fills me with some anxiety. I had spent the better part of twenty-seven years inside a tower, and it was no picnic. The dark twisting paths of rock, caverns, and occasional ruins. The endless creatures coming from shadows, side holes, in front and behind. Fortunately, we only needed to rest every few days at our level. When it was needed, we would find a fortified position, usually in a floor guardian room or by a collapsed tunnel to make camp. At one point, I forgot what the open sky looked like.

As much as I don’t want to step into a tower again so soon, I finally have access to magic and to gain more spells I need levels, for that I need experience, and the best experience comes from slaying monsters. I’ll get these kids to the tenth floor, reach level ten, and then spend some time exploring this world. It will be nice to camp outside under a star filled sky without some world ending bad guy to worry about.

We left the carriage behind us and walk into the main waiting area. Inside is a familiar sight of teams grouped together and people lining up to receive a ticket.

“Miko, can you get us a number? I’ll take Reigner to registration.” Yui slips her arm around mine and tugs me towards a service desk that had the words ‘Registration & Induction’.

“Why do I need to register to enter the tower?”

“A few reasons, the main one is to acquire your TKS, uh tower key storage. The rest you can hear from them”

Once we reached the desk I could see a gnome, not the one that almost caught my dagger, sitting on a high chair. The gnome had neat hair tied in a ponytail and wide rimmed glasses. She looked up at us and shuffled some papers around on the desk. “Name please.”

I glance towards Yui who just shrugs.

“Reigner”

The gnome sighs “Full name, thank you.”

“Reigner” I have no plan on adding my previous title of Silent Sword. I did have a last name on earth but never used it since dying. There are too many painful memories attached.

“Just Reigner.”

The gnome fixes me with a glare, her bushy eyebrows slowly moving into a frown.

“Fine, wait here a moment.”

She turns around, climbed down a little ladder that was built into the chair, and goes into a backroom.

“I’ll leave you to it. We will find somewhere to sit in the waiting area. Find us when you are finished.”

Yui walks away leaving me alone at the service counter.

A while later the gnome comes out of the room, climbs back up the chair, and sits down. Is she ignoring me?

I give a little wave. “Uh, welcome back. I did not catch your name.”

“Someone will be here shortly to assist in your tower induction. Please wait to the side. I am quite busy.”

Finding the nearest wall, I lean against it and watch the comings and goings of adventurers. Numbers were being displayed on top of a large entranceway at the back of the hall. In front is a wooden lectern with an orc wearing grey armour standing behind it. On the lectern sat a crystal ball and groups of adventurers would go to him, show their ticket, and move into the entranceway.

“Reigner! How was your first night in Aruni?” Mac said from behind the service counter.

Smiling I walk over and shake his hand.

“Nice to see a friendly face. It’s been an… interesting experience so far. Hiro has been very accommodating.”

“Good to hear. Come follow me.” Mac lifted a hinged section of the counter and guided me to the back room.”

“Normally we do the induction here but since you have special circumstances Elder Knight Torak left a notice at the counter for one of us to be notified. Since the Elder Knight had matters to attend to in the tower, I will be assisting you once again.”

“Cheers, I’ll try to keep my clothes on this time.”

Mac pressed a hand against the wall, steadying himself and made a gaging noise like he was about to throw up. After a moment he recovered and continued walking.

“Please don’t mention that. I can still… taste…”

“Yeah… don’t worry about it.”

The backroom is similar to the room Mac took me to last time. A sitting area of two couches facing each other, a small table between them, and two doors, one on either side of the room. On the table was a crystal ball.

Mac gestures for me to sit on the couch and took a place on the other.

“Since you have been in a tower before, this should be fairly straight forward. First, I’ll get you to register yourself by pushing some mana into this crystal ball. This will update your mana signature with our database and allow us to keep track of your comings and goings in the tower.”

“Why would you want to keep track of something like that?”

“Two main reasons. We have registration camps around most floor entrances. Once a climber enters the tower, if we don’t hear from them in five days, we send a search party. Mostly it’s to help people that are lost or stuck but sometimes it’s body recovery.”

“The other reason is this.” Mac holds up a diamond shaped amulet on a thin chain. “This is a Tower Key Storage Device or otherwise called TKS. We use this to identify people in the field. The TKS stores floor gems, or keys as we call them and cannot be forcibly removed from its living owner.”

Mac places the amulet into a small hole on the wooden holder the crystal ball sat on. “If you find any in the tower, please bring them back to us, and you will be given a small monetary reward. Keep in mind that these keep track of the last mana signatures it encounters before the owner’s death.”

“Is it common for adventurers to murder each other inside the tower?”

“In the higher floors other climbers can be more dangerous than the tower creatures. There are also constant battles for land and floor ownership between guilds. Since we incorporated this feature into the TKS we have seen a significant decrease in climber deaths on the first ten floors.”

“Okay, sounds good enough to me.” I lean over and place my hand on the crystal. “How do I do this?”

“The same way you would any magical item. Push your mana into it.”

I focused and coaxed my mana into the crystal. I could see my mana travel into the crystal’s centre and a flash of light came from the storage amulet.

Mac turns the crystal around, so the amulet is facing me. “Just pick up the TKS and you are good to go.”

Lifting it out of the holder I felt a tingle in my fingers. My name appeared in the air in front of the amulet with glowing white letters.

“Great. That will disappear shortly. If you need to confirm your identification to the Tower Knights, just channel mana into the TKS and it will display your name.”

I place the chain around my neck and move the amulet under my robe. “What are floor keys?”

“Floor keys are gems found in dungeons between each floor and are typically guarded by a strong creature.” Mac leans over the side of the couch and picks up a bag. “They allow you to skip floors. So, if you have keys for floor 1 and 2, you can pass them and enter directly to the third floor.”

He places the bag on the table between us and starts pulling out items. “This is our welcome package to new climbers. Inside you have some food supplies that will last you five days, one mana and health potion, a small leaflet that holds more tower information, and this. He pulls out what looks to be a firework on a stick. “This is a signal flare, please use this if you are in danger, lost, or need urgent assistance. Typically, climbers and tower knights will see the flare and will provide assistance. I do not recommend using it above floor 10 as it may attract the wrong type of help.”

I move all the items including the bag into my storage pouch on the side of my belt.

“More information on the tower can be read in the leaflet. The rest you can discover for yourself.” Mac stands up and offers me his hand. “Welcome to GorikTar Tower.”

Grinning I stand up and shake his hand. “Thank you. Can’t say I’m looking forward to spending hours in dark tunnels. Honestly, if I was not back to level one with no access to magic, I would be walking away from the tower, not into it.”

Mac laughs and guides me to the main waiting hall. “I think you are in for quite the surprise.” He points over to a group of tables, each sitting a team of adventurers. “I can see Yui and the rest of your group over there. Good hunting!”

I make my way over to the team. They were sitting around a table with a slip of paper resting in the middle. I pull out an empty chair and sit down.

Richard looks up from a book he is reading. “Ah, welcome back Reigner. No issues with registration?”

“Simple enough. How long do we need to wait?”

Miko glances at the large changing number above the entranceway. “Just a minute or so. Though it’s hard to tell. Sometimes you can get in right away other times it can take an hour or more.”

A female orc wearing an apron came and placed mugs of drink on the table. “I was told today is your first time entering the tower.” She winks at me and places a glass of a golden liquid in front of me. “Welcome to the Tower!” nearby adventurers cheered out loud at her words.

I pick up the glass and look around to see smiling or grinning faces on the adventurers faces, turning back to the server I say “cheers” and down the golden drink. The drink tasted incredible, a mixture of apples and grapes with a hint of something I could not identify. A second round of cheering came from the adventurers around us. The server placed down a wooden mug in front of me, took the glass cup and walked away from the table.

“Evil pricks” said Miko. She watches the server walk away “Your first day here they give you such an amazing drink but never give you the opportunity see it again.” Sighing, she continues “I can still remember the taste.”

“It’s crazy expensive anyway. They are auctioned off one bottle at a time on floor sixty” said Yui.

Richard puts away his book “I heard the reasoning is that no one below floor fifty has the funds to participate. It’s not just the taste that people are so interested. It provides great fortune to whoever samples it. Everyone that has had a drink end up experiencing something incredible. For me I gained a new spell”

Miko sighs “I met a solo adventurer who gave me a tour of the first floor that lasted a day and a night. He smelled amazing.”

“I remember that! Jace went into the tower to find you when you did not return by evening.” Yui giggles “He mentioned finding you-“

Miko reaches over and covers Yui’s mouth “Quiet! That was a long time ago. No need to bring it up here.”

A rapidly blinking light appears from the slip of paper in the middle of the table. Richard picks up the ticket “Looks like our number is up!”. He picks up his mug, places it inside his storage and stands up, Yui and Miko do the same. Following suit, I take a quick sip from the mug before placing it into storage. Tasty, wonder how it will be after a few hours in storage.

Following the others, we make our way to the large entrance at the back of the hall.