The second test room had been designed to echo the floor it was on. The walls were formed from wooden roots and the entire area seemed to have been grown rather than built. It was beautiful, earthy, filled with green and browns, and most importantly completely unique. There was no natural light down in the roots of this building, but everywhere seemed to be lit by various glowing plants, giving the area a yellowish tint. At the entrance to the area was a black haired woman sitting on a chair formed from the roots in the surroundings. She was busy reading a book, but looked up when Laurence and Yun came through the doors. She paid little attention to the young boy and his dog, but just said “The test will begin in three days. Your room is further down the hall. If you would like anything then just write it down and put it into the message box in your room. We on the second floor testing room will do our best to give you what you require”. She paused to turn a page on the book she was reading, “Have a nice day”. With that she ignored the young boy, completely blocking him out until he left.
Once he walked away she looked up again and thought A boy with a Tigerwolf cub. Has something happened to the Lupe clan? Then returned to the book she was reading. To her it was more important than the nature of a child who would likely not be around for much longer.
Laurence found an empty room near to the entrance. This place was far busier than the first floor testing room, filled with the sounds of vibrant life, growth and movement. Yun found a soft mat of moss to curl up on and just said to Laurence “Hungry!” He was still a wolf of few words, but was incredibly intelligent and had an appetite to match the growing boy’s. Laurence smiled. Not a single day had been mundane with his canine friend by his side. It was incredible fun for him to be around the wolf, and their journey had sped by to get to the second floor testing room. He looked around his room, trying to work out what each thing did. There was a place to store clothes, which Laurence was still lacking, a couple of beds constructed of the roots and bedded with thick moss, and a large bookcase next to a thin box on top of a post. The box had the word ‘Request’ written on it, so Laurence assumed that this was the box the woman at the front entrance had meant when she had told him about the message box.
He grabbed a thin piece of paper and a charcoal stick and began writing on the paper. Please bring lots of food and a wooden box to room 2717. It is for a seven year old boy and a wolf cub. Then he put the paper in the box and waited. While waiting he finally pulled out the corpse of the Orik he fought in the forest. He noticed when fighting him that the creature’s hide was incredibly strong, as were its claws and its bone. The creature was prime material for making armour. So Laurence began stripping the flesh off the bone and sorted all the produce into various sections. In the end he had a pile of flesh that needed tanning, bone that needed to be tied to leather, muscles that could be stretched and used as string or twine, and organs that were mostly useless. There were two pieces of the internal organs that had use however. The mana reservoir in the Orik had formed, and the heart which Laurence remembered could be powdered into a medicinal reagent.
Once the creature had been fully dissected Laurence stored the usable materials in the slow down box, and began the tanning process for the hide. By the time he had prepared the hide for bathing the food had arrived. It was a massive plate of cooked meat, vegetables and fruit which the two devoured. Laurence was not one to waste any food, but Yun just ate the meat with incomparable speed. After they had the food Laurence began making the leather and thinking up how he wanted the clothing he would make to look.
Two days went by in a flash and by the third day Laurence had finished making himself some armour. His final costume was a rather imposing one, a thick green leather jerkin, bound in the center with a series of bones that reinforced the body. Bones up either sleeve to act as a quick bracer and a hooded helm reinforced on the inside with the beast’s skull. He also had new boots, made from the same leather. The special thing about the clothes apart from the materials was that Laurence had tried something new on them. He had bound the pieces with blood and marked them with the runes for ‘always fits’ and the caveat ‘only usable to binder’. This would allow them to grow with the young boy, who otherwise would have likely grown out of them within the year.
Laurence was rather proud of his new jerkin, especially as he had made a very small pocket dimension to keep the hood in when he was not using it. Long before he began making the clothing did he realise that if he had the hood out it could collect water, so he simply gave it the capability to appear when he went into battle. The jerkin and boots were both given self-restoration runes to restore themselves and keep them from breaking, but they were also given the rune for comfort which meant Laurence wouldn’t even have to wear them in. The clothing was without a doubt the best possible armour the boy could make at that stage, and when he wore the good it gave the image of a boy demon with two little horns and an obscured face.
Yun was not particularly interested in the clothing Laurence wore, instead often requesting for the two of them to go hunting or to eat something. In the fourteen days that Laurence had known the wolf he had almost doubled in size, so his appetite had increased accordingly. Finally the day of the test rolled around and Laurence was prepared. The same young woman from the day they arrived knocked on their door and curtly told them to get a move on to the main arena for the test.
Once they arrived they were told to sit in pairs. “Ladies and gentlemen, birds beasts and lizards, My name is Rachael Briar and I am your Adjudicator for this floor. There is nothing to learn on this floor but there is still a test. This is a test of capability, intelligence, speed and might. Now, I asked you to sit in pairs for a reason. If you are in an agreed pair I will group you together in this two man test”. She looked round as various members of her audience scampered to pair up before the test started. “All done? Good. If you are alone still I will pair you up with someone at random. There are four thousand participants, so there are definitely enough people. The test itself will be a spin on a military training game called ‘capture the flag’. Each team starts with one flag, and they must have at least two flags at the end. Nice and simple right? You just have to go looking for the enemy flags while protecting your own. There’s two people per team. It should be easy if you’re confident with your skills. I might even deign to reward people if they have more than the required amount. I might not though.
“It’s not possible that all of you will pass, but it is possible for you all to fail. Generally speaking though, about half of you should pass the test. Now, there is only one other thing you should know, and that is that at the starting point for each pair there will be a pool that shows the location of all flags in the two kilometer area near you, and as you start around five hundred meters from any other person, you can see at least four other paid by looking at the pool. Now, unless anyone has any relevant questions we shall begin”.
They were teleported into a massive arena that seemed to have its own ecosystem. There were bird cries and the sounds of animals moving, hunting everywhere around Laurence and Yun. They quickly looked at the area they were in and assessed their options.
“What do you think we should do Yun?” Said Laurence as he looked at the pool in the middle of their starting area. He compared it to his book’s map, but was sorely disappointed with its capability to scan the surroundings. His book showed everything the pool showed and more, so the boy and his wolf had a slight advantage over the other contestants.
The wolf barked, giving Laurence the sensation of stealing the flags from an unprepared enemy and just uttered the one word, “Hunt”. It was simple and effective. They could not tell how much stronger or weaker they were than the enemies so they would rely on stealth more than anything else. It was by far the most efficient option, as Laurence had no idea how rare a Saint before the sixth floor actually was.
The two friends looked at the map of the local area and decided that just passing was not enough for them. They wanted three flags, not two and so decided to attack the two bases nearest to their own. One was to the north, the other was south. They would split up and attempt to steal the flags without being noticed and return to this base. It was a simple snatch and dash plan, and Laurence wanted to make it more intricate but he knew if he went too far it would likely blow up in his face. After a few moments of thought Laurence grabbed the the flag he had on the wall of his base and stuck it in his bag then began on his way to the south.
He crept through the overgrowth, pushing through as quietly as possible while he looked at the map in his book. He already knew that the pool map did not show life signs, so he had a massive advantage in terms of reconnaissance when compared to all the other challengers. He saw there was a flag left in the base of his target, and one person guarding it. If he was careful he could run in and snatch the flag from the inside of the tree where it was set up in with ease.
Laurence moved into a position where he could see the guard but made sure it was covered enough that the guard would find it difficult to see him. He checked the book one more and saw two people heading in this direction. Perhaps I could grab the flag while those two caused a distraction he thought to himself. The guard sneered as he heard the two men approaching and tied some cables to a fake flag and stuck it outside his base. Stepping back inside the tree he quickly raised a thick metal slab to hide behind.
That was a moment Laurence could not let go. He dashed towards the hole while ignoring the flag outside. It seemed too good to be true, so Laurence would see what was up with it after he secured the other flag. There had been several times in the forest where Laurence had almost got himself killed because of his curiosity. He had not managed to rein it in, but he could focus on one thing now without getting distracted by every new item or creature.
In the blink of an eye Laurence crossed the thirty meter gap between himself and the tree, and entered inside. He grabbed a stone from the floor and threw it into one corner of the tree. As the man behind the shield glanced at the sound made by the stone’s impact, the boy jumped into the blind spot he had created. He dashed to the remaining flag and put it in his bag as the man in front checked over his metal slab to see if someone was there. Finally Laurence jumped back up and over the man as he returned behind the slab. It was a quick snatch and grab that went as perfectly as possible.
He had the flag in his pocket so he decided to fulfil his curiosity over the nature of that trapped flag. Cutting the cables Laurence heard a click and was almost immediately knocked off his feet when the flag in front of him exploded. Shards of wood, metal and cloth fibre slammed into the surrounding area, peppering the boy with lacerations and bruises. He had shut his eyes and covered his vials the moment he knew something was wrong, but the trap did not do much to him in any case. The other men were not so lucky. The two men who had been coming to steal a flag screamed and writhed around on the floor in pain because they had received a much greater portion of the damage than the boy. For every cut that Laurence had, they had two gaping wounds, and for each small bruise the boy had, they received a shattered bone.
In moments they were simply two corpses. Laurence stood up shakily, his ears were ringing and everything was swaying. He was in the middle of a crater and honestly surprised he could still stand. He fell on his hands and knees when he could no longer keep up, and began crawling back into the vegetation. He didn’t have far to go and his body was quickly adapting and correcting the damage caused by the trap.
What was that? Laurence thought to himself as he barely escaped the area. He had not been outwardly damaged but his senses were addled, and his brain has been shaken. He felt woozy, but managed not to throw up until he reached the brush line. He hid in a bush for a couple of minutes until his body had completely returned to normal and then got up and walked back to his base to meet Yun. The boy was still in no state to run.
He reached the base and saw there was a large group of people around his tree. None of them seemed to be partners, but they seemed to be arguing over something. Laurence felt a sense of distress and excitement coming from Yun and realised that his friend was trapped by those people.
“I found the dog first. I get its flag,” said one man, holding his cutlass in the face of one of the more aggressive competitors. They had been arguing for a while but it was only now becoming heated. Everyone wanted the flag because it would be an easy step to victory but the moment anyone tried to take it everyone would gang up and attack them.
“Over my dead body!” replied another, much larger man. The two finally began fighting, one blessed with skill and the other, with strength. People began getting distracted and watched the fight progress. The large man was the favourite of the crowd, as the small man had been extremely domineering while the group had been arguing. The small man was deserving of his arrogance, he was very skilled, but that only made the rest of the group dislike him more.
As the crowd watched the small man dodge and counter the large man’s punches Laurence walked up to Yun and began petting him, putting the final flag they wanted in his bag. They began walking off into the forest when the large man finally landed a hit on the small man, punching him through the crowd and knocking him clean out. The small man tumbled and landed beside the two departing youngsters, spoiling their perfect exit.
“Where did the flag go, little boy?” Said the big man. It could have only gone one place, but attacking a young boy would make all but the cruellest of men pause.
“I took it”. Laurence said simply.
“Give it to me out you’ll end up getting hurt”.
“No”.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” said the man. It was not something he would have preferred to do in public, but Laurence’s refusal gave him the right to exert as much force as necessary in his eyes. He immediately dashed towards Laurence and swung his muscular arms out like hammers. There was a whistling sound as his fist flew through the air and then a crunch as the fist impacted against the child’s face. The crowd collectively winced and no one could bear to look until they heard a rather adult scream. Finally people began opening their eyes and looked in shock and horror as they saw the large man cradling his smashed hand, while Laurence just stood there, unblinking, not even harmed.
“Can I go now?” Said the boy, as the crowd looked on aghast at the tableau before them. One or two of the more educated challengers began realising that the child was likely one of the famous ‘Golden Children’ from the nine clans, and that attacking them was folly to say the least. They started the challenge of the tower with an advantage, so some other challengers looked down on the children because they climbed through the strength of the Books, not their own strength in the tower. This was a mistake by those challengers as the children often did better simply because it was what they were trained to do from birth. Many of them did not know anything other than how to survive in the tower, how to fight and the contents of their specific clan’s Book. It was only now that the challengers who were residents of the tower actually realised how fearsome the golden children could be.
Without waiting for a response Laurence turned round and walked off into the forest with Yun, to leave the large group to stew in their own thoughts and wonder whether they were truly outclassed by these children. Laurence had no idea why they would stop attacking him, but he did not waste the chance he had been given. I wonder why a man with such brittle bones was climbing Babel. It could not have been good for him.
After about an hour there was a siren and the surviving teams were brought back to the main hall. Rachael looked at the crowd in front of her and said “Well aren’t you a sorry bunch. I knew a lot of you would fail, but only one team in four actually passing is pathetic. A literal child and a dog passed the test as a team, so honestly if you think you are worthy you can try again in three months. I would advise anyone who failed here to just go home. Because you suck.
“For those of you that passed, well done. I’m not proud of you, because as I said, a child and a dog passed, but you did do better than the losers. Your pointer stone is going to get upgraded to include a mana restoration ability. You just have to squeeze the stone and it will instantly restore ten percent of your mana. Be warned, recharging takes one day for each tier you are. You will also receive a lightstone, which glows and illuminates a wide area for you, and two copper, forty stone shards”.
There was a flash of light and a stairwell revealed itself behind Rachael. She stood in the doorway and checked every single person who came through. Taking the flags off each duo as payment for upgrading their stone, she guarded the door with a relaxed manner. No one had seen the adjudicators fight, but they had to be assumed to be strong to guard the floors. No one was willing to test a woman who looked so at ease around over a thousand people who she had just painted as worthless. It was imposing at best.
Finally Laurence walked up to the stairwell and ascended to the next floor. It had taken him over half a month but he was finally making headway up Babel. He smiled as he looked at Yun and thought about what the next floor would be like, and if he would make any more friends than he had on this floor.
