Sol was led by a knight to a large waiting room filled with people relaxing and chatting. Almost 100 soon to be knights were there, talking and getting to know their future comrades.

‘Guess I was nowhere near the first to finish…’

While it bothered him a bit, he knew most, if not all, didn’t get to the final floor. Even for him, the final floor was pretty hard, and if not for his mother letting him finish the attack, it would have been much harder.

“Yo! You finished pretty fast. Did you try to go for more after 25?”

Sol turned to his left and saw he was approached by a friendly-looking adventurer who was dressed rather lightly, wearing loose cloth pants and a sleeveless shirt. It was odd because most adventurers would have some decent armor, even if it was just reinforced leather.

It all began to make sense once his gaze moved towards the weapons he saw strapped to his belt.

‘Claws, huh. So he’s a pugilist?’

Sol had read about these types of fighters before. Pugilists generally referred to combat experts that fought exclusively with their fists using martial arts. The most important thing about pugilists was that there were two kinds: wild pugilists and mystic pugilists. Wild pugilists would focus on their physical stats and would usually wield animalistic weapons; a rare few were even able to transform parts of their bodies into animal parts. Mystic pugilists, on the other hand, balanced their attribute distribution and utilized mana in unique ways. Both types of pugilists had even more subcategories, but they were usually generalized under the two umbrella terms. Sol guessed the one before him was likely a wild pugilist, given that his weapons didn’t appear to have mana channeling capabilities.

“Yeah, I kept going. Did you?”

“Yup! I only managed to get to the 21st floor. The ogres were too big and too many for me to handle, haha! How about you?”

Sol wondered whether to keep it a secret what floor he arrived at, but it made no sense to do so. He planned to compete in the tournament, which only the best-performing applicants could participate in, which meant he would get exposed anyway later on.

“I made it to the first floor.”

The pugilist immediately started laughing.

“Hahaha! That's a good one!” The man then noticed that Sol wasn’t laughing with him. “Wait… you’re serious? You actually made it to the bottom?”

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Sol nodded in response.

“On gods?! Let me see your token!”

“Sure.”

He took out his token and flipped it, showing the side with just the number 1 on it.

“You actually reached the end…”

‘Is he sad I made it further?’

“That’s awesome! Yo guys, check this out!”

Sol was about to comfort the man, but it seemed he didn’t need to. The pugilist, excited to find someone who actually beat the entire test, called out to a few nearby applicants he had recently met.

“Woah, really?”

“No way!”

“Is he the first to complete it?”

Soon, a small group formed around Sol as more people showed up, either impressed or curious about the man who beat the test.

The pugilist asked, “What was the final boss? A few of us have been speculating on what it could be. I think it was a winged tiger!”

Adventurers began to voice their guesses as well.

“Nah, they are similar to manticores. Maybe it's a drake?”

A woman nearby shook her head. “They wouldn’t fit. The floors aren’t high enough, and unless it’s an earth drake, most would be weaker thanks to the roof. It’s probably a giant.”

“A giant would have the same issue!”

“A small giant, then! It’s an illusion, is it not? Just make it smaller!”

“Why couldn’t it be a drake then with that same logic?”

It quickly devolved into an argument, which made Sol sigh. He didn’t know what to answer.

‘I don’t even know what to say. Did everyone fight my mom, or was it just me? If not my mom, then what would other people fight? I’ll just keep it vague…’

“It was a knight.”

The adventurers stopped arguing upon hearing the answer.

The pugilist spoke, “A knight? Like a royal knight?”

“She had the armor of one, so I guess so.”

A swordswoman sighed. “Aww, I was hoping it would be a vampire. I have always wanted to fight one.”

“There would be no fight. You would instantly die against a vampire or be turned into their thrall.”

“Huh?!”

Everyone was surprised as a young woman with brown hair and a long spear suddenly appeared and spoke to the swordswoman. Even Sol was unable to notice her approach. For someone to be able to approach a group of skilled adventurers without their knowledge meant they either had a special talent or they were very strong. No one called her out for her sudden appearance and continued the conversation.

The pugilist spoke, “Do you really know about vampires? I thought no one had even seen a vampire in decades.”

The swordswoman agreed, “I found a few books that even speculated that the vampires all died out. That's why I hoped we would see one in the illusion.”

The spearwoman did not explain any further and walked away, leaving the rest of the group puzzled.

‘She had encountered vampires before?’ Sol thought as he looked at her walk away.

The pugilist asked, “She was one of the first people here, right?”

A large man nodded. “Yeah, I was one of the first 20 to arrive, and one of the people who arrived before me said she and some other guy were the first to arrive. A few of us tried approaching them but they weren't very talkative.”

“For her to be able to sneak up on all of us… Did she not care about the tournament and stopped at the 25th floor?”

“Only the knights overseeing the test would know.”

The group continued chatting from topic to topic, with Sol also adding his own input every so often. They were a nice group of people, so he didn’t mind becoming friends with them. He just hoped that when he got the information on his parents, his parting from the royal knights wouldn't turn them into his enemies.