"Tell me more about yourself." The girl that introduced herself as Ak'li asked me. The question caught me off-guard. I'll be honest. This whole situation was weirding me out. I just went with it because I felt I might regret it in the future.

"What's there more to say about myself though?" I replied with a question. I was telling her the truth, my life was without any major events. "I could say some things about my past though," I said.

"Please do, I might tell you some secrets then too." Ak'li put a hand over her mouth as she laughed. I was stunned by the beauty of her smile. This black-haired girl which suddenly appeared in my life has started to grow on me.

"I was born into a family of four. I am the youngest of three children. My parents never expected much of us and just let us do whatever as long as we were good people. That could be the reason why I don't really think things through before going somewhere." I started telling her about my family.

"So you're the youngest, same with me. I was born into a family of twelve. I have 6 sisters and 3 brothers not including myself. Bo'lee and I were the last born and the most talented between us siblings. Our clan trained us and educated us until we were 15 and we were sent here..." Ak'li's facial features contorted as she continued: "I think it was our fault we failed the trial. We've become the Tower's equivalent of NPCs after breaking the rules." she said with a grim tone.

"Rules?" I had to inquire.

"You'll get to know them as you reach level 1. Let's not talk about my past anymore though. I feel like I said enough." Ak'li stared at me with a smile. But I could tell, her smile had deeply hidden emotions that not even I could tell what they were.

"Right- I was supposed to live my life with no care in the world. I was excited when I came here. I had a reason to actually do something. I had something interesting to do." I couldn't figure out which face I was supposed to make here. Was I happy right now? Or maybe a bit melancholic.

"So why don't you seem happy?" she asked me.

I looked at her tattoo filled back and just stopped speaking. I let her take the lead.

"Do you know what you can gain when you reach the end of the Tower?" she grabbed my hand as though we were a couple and smiled. "A wish. No limits, and a single wish." she looked me into the eye and then smiled so hard that her eyes closed. The more I looked at her the more I felt her beauty was transcended the mortal realms.

"Are you a fairy?" I blurted out something without thinking.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Hah! Nice one! Sorry to disappoint you, we are still humans." she laughed and held my hand even tighter. Was she nervous?

"Your family must miss you," I said.

"Not at all, to them, we were nothing more than weapons. Children trained for the final trial."

"What wa-?" a hand landed on my mouth. It stopped me from speaking further. I looked into Ak'li's eyes and widened my own. Her eyes had changed color to a golden one.

"I may act friendly but still- We are not friends, girl. This is a good-hearted warning from me. Don't mess with former rankers. Not even those who were corrupted." Ak'li stopped holding my hand and left towards the inn.

I looked at her still shocked and then looked at the place where she left me at. A giant bathhouse.

"So she did take me to take a bath." I smiled and stopped thinking of the event that just transpired.

I entered the bathhouse and got a change of clothing while I was at it. I placed my armor into a locker I bought and went to take a bath.

----------------------------------------

Rankers.

A term used for the ten highest climbers of the Towers.

The names of the ten rankers of the Tower of White have never been disclosed. It could be said that all of them besides the rank 1 are mysterious people.

But for some reason. All of them were making strange movements lately. The rank 5 suddenly disappeared, rank 2 and 7's initials have switched places on the scoreboard.

It all started to make less and less sense.

But to Cam that was unimportant. She stood at the portal to the next zone and sighed. Her second day was spent trying to speak to Ak'li once again but she was nowhere to be found. She then left and slept at the inn.

As soon as the sun struck its light on the city she went and opened the portal towards the next zone.

Warning! The climber is still not level 1 and has no ID set up! Your record won't be recorded if you clear the zone. Do you wish to enter the level 1 zone [Abyssal Forest] ? Y/N?

"Yes." and her figure flickered out of existence.

She appeared in a forest similar to the last one. But this one's trees were gray and lifeless while still having dark green leaves on them.

The forest ground was riddled with stones and pebbles which made it uncomfortable to walk on with the shoes she was wearing.

Her equipment was underlevelled and she too was underlevelled for this zone.

From the information she gathered she guessed leveling up would be easy but the environment was plain hellish.

"It is colder..." she commented and looked around. Unlike the former forest where the time was in an eternal twilight here, it seemed to be an eternal night.

"I'll make a fire," she said and used her knife to get some firewood to prepare for a campfire.

Her days in the second zone had started and she felt this zone would last longer than the last one by a lot.

She checked her status for the first time since entering.

No ID set Level 0 84% towards level 1 Class: Ranger Ranger Class Bonuses: +3 DEX, +1 STR per level

Stats HP 100/100 MP 60/60 VIT:10 STA:8 STR:9 DEX:11 INT:6 WIS:7

"Fair enough. I need to gather skills as well. I have 2 green and one black slot left." I frowned and thought of my survival plan for the time being.