Roderick kept staring at Ambrose, looking fascinated, as they sat at the Argentia hot pot stand. Downing large quantities of hot-hog broth. He wondered how a boy of this size could eat so much. 

“Slow down boy, it's not going anywhere. Hey Sammy, can you get us two mugs of brambleberry stout.” He called towards the lady working the stall.

She was a nice girl, very plain to look at, easy on the eyes. She had a white bandana tying her hair back as she filled two mugs for the two of them. Sliding the mugs to each of them she held her hand out to Roderick.

“That'll be ten rooks for the drinks, another thirty for all the hot-hog yer pal over here ate.” She motioned for the guard to pay up.

He reached for his coin purse, pulled out fourty silver coins, and slid them across the stand towards Sammy. Then he leaned back and breathed out.

“Hey kid, I expect reimbursement.” Roderick said half-jokingly “Maybe I should have you work it off in the guard unit, you seem fit enough to join.” 

“I will pass on that, there is far too much I would like to do and learn to be stuck in one place.” Ambrose said as he rubbed his now full belly

“Agh screw it, just come find me, when you have some coin and treat me to lunch. With that we’ll call it even.” he said.

After a bit of banter, Roderick motioned for them to make their way towards the rest of the city.

“Let's get going before it gets dark. I still need to do my final perimeter checks.” he stated then downed his mug of brambleberry stout.

Ambrose stood and thanked the patroness one last time before turning and following Rodick in the direction of what he believed to be Wolfsong, the guard led him through the cobbled streets for what felt like twenty to thirty minutes before they finally arrived at a very large building. The building was connected to the base of the massive tower and even though the building may have been large, the tower still seemed thick enough to take a full day of walking just to get around it.

The entrance passage to the building was a heavy lattice grilled gate made of what would appear to be either iron or steel.

Above the gate was an insignia, a wolf's paw sitting atop a musical note. Once the two of them passed through the gate Ambrose was able to see the building clearly, it had two arched doors dyed in crimson, walls of white stone which contrasted it's dark black shingles that draped its rooftops, at the very top of the building stood a bell tower.

Roderick pointed towards the bell tower “See that bell on the top? Every time that chimes it signifies a new magi has graduated from Wolfsong University and can now climb the tower.”

“And why would anyone want to climb the tower?” Ambrose tried to look at the top of the tower as he asked Roderick.

Roderick stared at him, looking dumbfounded for a second and then spoke “You don't even… Gods above, help me.” he rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance. “... Alright, alright, it doesn’t matter, we can fix this.”

[Very good! My disguise as a bumbling dumbass who doesn’t know anything is perfect, now I simply need to learn something before I get myself killed] Ambrose thought, still rubbing his stomach... like a bumbling dumbass.

Roderick started explaining “The tower is interconnected, throughout the multiverse, it is full of resources, materials, people, and machines that we don’t even know about!.” Roderick’s eyes seemed to shine while talking, like a small kid with big dreams. “Every planet across the multiverse has one entry point which allows entry into the tower, this is ours. Magi, however, are the only ones good enough to climb the tower, the higher you go the more condensed the mana is and the more resources you’ll find, multiple worlds have their entire economies almost fully based on the tower!” he finished his explanation there as he pulled open the crimson doors.

“This is as far as I take you, boy, head over to the front desk over there they should be able to get you registered,  just show them the temp I gave you earlier.” and the Roderick started whispering “When the woman asks you something just say my name alright? She’ll take you to the ugliest old man you have ever seen, and he’ll be able to help you, see ya kid, don’t get into trouble”  With that Rodick pulled out his hand towards Ambrose.

Ambrose shook it “Thank you for your help, Roderick, I wish you all the best.”

He watched as the large guard left the building, before turning around and heading for the front desk.

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The whole place felt very rustic and gave that interesting feeling of adventure, the heavy smell of sweat, the pillars of wood, the board of requests, and even the scratches on the walls served to give the place a personality, people had been here, and people will continue being here for quite a while.

Ambrose stopped in front of the desk and spoke. “I am here to register. I have a temporary permit, I’d like to know more.” He said as he placed the parchment on the desk.

The lady at the front was dressed in a black dress with a frilly white blouse, she had long red hair which danced as she turned to face him.

“What do we have here?” She asked coyly “Let's take a look at this.” as she picked up the parchment and read a few lines in she began to laugh loudly.

Ambrose cocked his head a bit in wonder ”I’m sorry?” he asked

“It says here you were running around the streets naked, you some kind of perv?” she said as he filed the parchment away.

[... I… I am going to kill that old bastard.]

“No, It’s complicated, Roderick sent me.” He said matter of factly

“Rodie sent you?” She asked and took another look at the parchment. “Well, I’ll be damned, he did!” she looked kind of shocked to see that.

“He said something about ‘meeting the ugliest man I’d ever seen’ or something like that” the second he ended his sentence the girl started laughing again, louder than last time, so loud that Ambrose feared she might’ve alerted someone from outside.

“Oh, Gods above” She said as she wiped the tears from her eyes “I know what he’s talking about hun, please follow me” She walked around the desk and ushered him out of the main foyer and into a hall to the side “I’m Sofie by the way”

“Ambrose.” He responded.

As they walked down the hallway Sofie kept talking “You know? We don’t get many busy days, what with all the Magi running around the tower and grabbing everything they can hold, we’re frequently sent materials and payments yes, but people? Rarely.” She seemed a bit frustrated by this.

“Maybe you should serve more soup”.

“Soup? What do you mean”

“People like soup, you sell soup, you get people” Ambrose responded.

“... I think I understand what you mean, you’re talking about using this place as a bar too right? That doesn’t seem like a bad idea at all” Sofie said as she stopped in front of a door, she knocked a few times before opening the door and walking inside, pulling Ambrose along.

Inside the room, it was very plain, the walls were covered with wood, there was a large desk, a few chairs and the ugliest man Ambrose had seen up until that point. He had scars all but covering his disinterested face and even more probably hidden under all the thick clothes he was wearing, he was enormous too, the fact that his chair hadn’t shattered three times over amazed Ambrose.

The man looked up from the papers on his desk and saw Ambrose and Sofie at the door “Sofie” he said, his voice so deep and guttural it would’ve passed for a growl. “What have you done now?”

“Oh come on, just because I come here doesn’t always mean I’ve done something bad now does it?”

“Usually? Yes” He slowly turned his steely eyes towards Ambrose “And you, son, who might you be?”

Ambrose stood there for a second, simply staring into the man’s eyes “Ambrose, I was sent here by Roderick to meet… You…” Sofie chuckled a bit on that one.

The second Roderick’s name was mentioned, the old man’s eyes went wide, he stood up from the chair and Ambrose would’ve sworn he heard engines revving up. “Cocksucking, motherfucker, can’t even wipe his ass right and sends his dipshits to me? I’ll rip his fucking throat out…” The rest of what he said only registered as animalistic growls on Ambrose’ ears but he thought that he got the gist of it. 

After a while of continued swearing and saying things that would give a war veteran nightmares for a few days it seemed that he had calmed down a bit and he sat back down on his chair with a thunk, now Ambrose fully believed that chair to be absolutely unbreakable.

The old man pinched the bridge of his nose much like the person he was cursing out just a moment ago “Alright then, let’s get this over with. What do you need kid, I don’t have much time to spend on Roderick’s milkers.” He motioned to the chair in front of his desk.

Ambrose sat down and explained the gist of his ‘story’, the old man remained unresponsive throughout the speech.

Once Ambrose finished the old man looked up to his face once again and sighed, “Look here son, I can see why old Rod sent you to me but all I can do with this permit, is give you a registration and send you off...”As he finished, he sat there in silence gauging the boy's reaction.

[Is he trying to intimidate me?.]

Ambrose stared into the old man's cold piercing eyes, feeling as though eternity was slipping by as he sat there. Finally breaking the silence the old man spoke…

“However… There is a way for you to join us” he said, leaning back on invinci-chair, “You will need to be put through a test, if you pass we’ll enroll you into our university. Once you graduate you will be able to climb the tower in search of resources. if you fail... well… you can always open up a street stall.” the man laughed, it was freaky how much the room reverberated the laughter, but Sofie looked like she didn’t mind.

“It is up to you. The test is quite dangerous, as we need to see if you have what it takes to make it in the University let alone the tower. What do you say, Are you up to the challenge?”

[Danger? I mean how dangerous can it actually be? He said I'd be able to open a street stall if I fail, at least the risk of dying seems low.]

“I'll be needing more information, but I’d say that I’ll take it.”

“Great! Sofie fill him in on the details, show him the way to exam room seven”

“B-but sir, Rome is the examiner of seven… Don't you think he should be going to a different room?” Sofie cautioned.

“It’s fine, I gave him a warning to stop dismembering recruits.” He waved her off.

[do what now to recruits? Well Fuck...]