Ashley let out a groan and opened her eyes. An unfamiliar ceiling filled her vision, and her body jerked upwards as she sat up straight. The last thing she remembered was seeing her fully-charged attack shooting at an image of her own back. Then…, that was it.

“Hey, she’s awake!”

Ashley turned her head to the side and flinched. The shirtless man with golden eyes, Vur, was staring directly at her. Her root bracelet glowed amber, and she withdrew her trusty … weapon? Her eyes shifted downwards, and her gaze landed on her bazooka which was held in Vur’s hands. A glowing dagger appeared in Ashley’s hand instead as the glow from the bracelet died down, and she scrambled to her feet in a crouching position. She channeled her mana into her dagger, and … her mana wasn’t moving as she expected it to. In fact, it wasn’t moving at all.

A small woman with wings, a fairy queen—judging by the color of her hair—flew towards Ashley with a brilliant smile. “I silenced your mana. Surprised?”

“Doesn’t that only last for a few seconds?” the beautiful elf sitting on a rocking chair asked. Ashley wasn’t sure why there was a rocking chair in the Temple of the Light Lord, but it was there, and the elf was rocking on it.

The fairy queen whirled around in midair and puffed her chest out. “If I borrow Vur’s mana, it can last a very, very long time.” She whirled back around and nodded at Ashley. “So, you can’t use mana, and you don’t have your weapon. Are you still going to act all high-and-mighty?”

“Who are you people?” Ashley asked, her stance unchanging with her dagger held out in front of herself. “Are you not afraid of the lords’ retaliation?”

The well-dressed man stepped forward. “Hello, I’m Kim Hajun,” he said. “As you can see, we’re newbies who’ve recently entered the tower.” Upon seeing Ashley’s doubting expression, Kim Hajun nodded. “Other than trial takers, who else can enter a floor’s advancement exam?”

Ashley furrowed her brow. Only lords with temples in inactive regions could enter the advancement exam. Anyone else in the exam region had to be someone who was a resident of the first floor. As the guardian of the first floor, Geomi had the right to monitor the exam, but even she wasn’t allowed to interfere with the happenings without making an appeal to the tower first. In that case…. Ashley stared at Vur. She had her butt handed to her by a newbie? Actually, no, she didn’t lose against just the dragon. Her gaze shifted onto the woman with horns; the demon had also interfered with spatial spells, an extremely rare type of magic. But still, even if she was ambushed, the humiliation of being defeated by two newbies would never be washed away. …Unless she could trick the other lords into being beaten by them, so it wasn’t just her being embarrassed.

“I’m sure you realized I’m telling the truth by now,” Kim Hajun said. “Since we’ve answered a question of yours, how about you answer a question of ours?”

Ashley frowned. Under normal circumstances, she’d never voluntarily give up information. However, these circumstances were anything but normal. “Fine.”

“Hang on a second,” the fairy queen said, flying between Kim Hajun and Ashley, breaking their eye contact. Stella placed her hands on her hips and glared at Kim Hajun. “We’re the ones who defeated her. Why do you get to ask the questions?”

Kim Hajun blinked. “W-well,” he said before taking in a quick breath, “it seems like your two groups have gotten off on the wrong foot. Wouldn’t it make sense for a third party to mediate between the two of you?”

“I don’t need anyone to speak for me,” Tafel said and came over to Kim Hajun’s side. She squatted down to look Ashley in the eyes. “Hi, my name is Tafel.” She turned and pointed at Vur. “That’s my husband. You shot him and made him bleed, so I was pretty upset and redirected your attack back at you. You understand, right?”

Ashley wasn’t sure what would happen to her if she disagreed, so she nodded her head.

“What were you doing down here?” Tafel asked and stood up. She glanced around. “Is this temple like your summer home? It’s very….”

“Gaudy?” Ashley asked, filling in the blank. “I didn’t design it, and this place isn’t my home.” A sigh escaped from Ashley’s mouth as she stored her dagger and stood up as well. If this group of newbies wanted to hurt her any more than they already had, they had plenty of time to do it. Speaking of which…. Ashley glanced down at her body. Why wasn’t she injured?

“Vur healed you,” Tafel said.

Ashley let out a noncommittal grunt. She crossed her arms and heaved out a sigh. “There was a commotion going on amongst the other lords. Someone, you guys, found their skills, and they were notified by the tower. We didn’t even know the tower was copying our skills and giving them away, so a few lords sent down some representatives to understand what had happened. Geomi ate them, so I was forced to come down personally.”

“Geomi ate the people who came down to check things out?” Tafel asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I told you my mum is scary,” Garlic said, the melon-shaped egg flashing with dozens of differently colored lights. “You didn’t believe me. How is it? Scared now?”

Tafel snorted. “Your mum might eat people, but don’t forget who ate your mum’s legs.”

Garlic fell silent as the egg dimmed.

Ashley stared at the egg before turning her gaze back onto Tafel. “When I was about to leave the temple, someone”—she glared at Vur—“almost punched me in the face and ignored me while taking a copy of my Holy Smite skill. You were there for the rest.”

Tafel nodded. “And you thought we were a part of the Virtuous Hand because…?”

“They’re a group that’ve cropped up recently,” Ashley said and snorted. “They’re trying to upend the order of the tower, and they’ve been dismantling the institutions we’ve set in place to help people climb on the lower floors. When suspicious things started happening on the first floor, we just automatically assumed they were up to no good.”

“Well, we’re not part of the Virtuous Hand,” Tafel said. “You can think of us as adventurers searching for our lost friend.”

“No promises about not upending the order of the tower though,” Stella said. When everyone turned to look at her, she raised an eyebrow and placed her hands on her hips. “What? Am I wrong? Wherever Vur goes, the order changes.”