The second floor of the Tower was much more in alignment with what one might expect from a fantasy setting. They all appeared in the middle of a town square, surrounded by a medieval looking market to their left and right and facing a flight of stairs that led to a cobblestone road.

The road passed through a rather fanciful archway, but Amon wasn’t able to see much beyond that point. A group of people were blocking the way as the envoy traveled down the road and toward the new Players.

He was going to study the people approaching him, but he was bombarded by a sudden barrage of friend requests coming his way. People were surrounding him and clamoring, expressing their awe and gratitude.

Can you make it so that I’m not notified when I get a friend request?

‘Friend requests have been silenced.’

Amon made it a point to focus on the environment rather than the people trying to make his acquaintance. He did them a favor, yes, but he didn’t care to create any actual bonds with the majority of them. None of them had proved their usefulness to him on a personal level. He only helped them in the first place for selfish reasons, not because he was nice.

“Judging from your lack of focus, I think it’s safe to assume we have a distinguished guest amongst our new arrivals this cycle?”

The voice was crystal clear despite the cacophony of voices overlapping one another. Everyone turned to face the speaker, which spoke for the power that their voice carried better than any words could.

He was a mountain of a man with bronze skin and muscles that looked as if they were barely being contained by his attire. His spiky black hair gave off an electrified feeling, which seemed to be in cohorts with the natural excitement that he carried with him. The energy wasn’t all he had that was visibly in tow, however.

He was huge, but the sword sheathed on his back was gigantic. Amon hesitated to call it a greatsword because it was well over thrice as large as his own greatsword.

“Great, we have your attention now!” boomed the man between laughs that came from deep within his diaphragm.

There was indeed a ‘we’ in question. Standing on either side of him, at the very top of the stairs, were nine other men and women that all looked as though they were the main characters of their own stories.

“Welcome to the second floor! Now that you’ve proven that you are capable of completing adventures and advancing floors, you now have the opportunity to be recruited by us, The Ten. We are the guilds that hold the majority of the power in the Tower, and this floor is a space shared equally by all of us. We…”

He started to discuss the different guilds. Who they were, what they stood for, what they excelled in, and what they were looking for. Amon didn’t truly care for the introduction, but he knew it would benefit him to listen, so he did so begrudgingly.

While he listened, he looked at the people that were being described to him one by one. They all seemed to notice him in particular out of the crowd, but they didn’t just focus on him. They also paid attention to the blonde woman that had gone first in the testing room, and a few other individuals that seemed noteworthy. Could they tell how strong the new Players were just from a glance?

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There was one white haired woman that didn’t relent from staring Amon down. He noticed that every time he glanced over at her, her crimson eyes bore into him with an intensity that almost made him want to shudder. If Seru were present, she’d have already gone off on the woman just for looking at him the way she was.

He felt as though it was safe to assume that she was kin of Nykal. From what he heard, her name was Nya, and she was one of the captains of the Blood Lotus guild.

What a cliche name. Did Nykal already pass the message along, or am I releasing some kind of energy that gives myself away like I was in the arena?

If Nykal had already shared what he did, and who he was, he was going to have a headache on his hands.

He recognized the name of the Tri guild from what Rea had told him earlier, which also caused him to cross their entire group off of his list of potential allies. They were goblin haters, for some reason, and he wouldn’t take lightly to anyone troubling Seru.

He noticed that there was a pinked haired man that resembled Rea closely, who offered him a reassuring smile when the two of them locked eyes for a brief moment. He then returned to assessing the rest of the new Players.

Amon realized just how isolated he was. The Tower was vast, and information seemed to travel fast. How many of them knew who he was? He was happy that Rea’s guild, dubbed the Xearon Alliance, was both a top ten guild and had a positive impression of him though.

Once the introductions were done, Hanz, the mountain man, told them where they could go for a week of free lodgings while they adjusted to the new floor and decided which guild would best suit them. For the next week, the Ten would hold classes and training sessions that were open to all new Players so that they could get a feel for what the guilds had to offer.

All of this information had taken the attention off of Amon and the Players dispersed in groups, filling the air with excitement for the future ahead of them. There were people that still chose to move alone, though, and Amon was one of them.

He tried to disappear into the crowd so that he could make it to his new room without bumping into anyone troublesome, but trouble had intentions to bump into him instead. It came in the form of the blonde woman from the exam, who stepped in front of him and stopped him from following the crowd.

He tried to walk around her, but every time he did so she made it a point to follow his movements and stop him from advancing any further. When he realized that she absolutely wasn’t going to budge after a few attempts, he turned on his heel and went the other way with a neutral expression. He wanted her to feel as if he barely noticed her presence.

Exasperated, she used some kind of movement technique to position herself in front of him again, faster than he thought she would. Even with his acute senses, he couldn’t hear her footsteps as she maneuvered her way into his face again.

He sighed heavily. What was her aim? He glanced over at the people from the Ten, all of whom were watching them intently since they were the last ones left in the courtyard. Was this some kind of show to them?

“Accept my friend request. My name is Mekakanius von Lichtenheimer.”

What kind of name?

He didn’t want to do it, so he started walking toward the Ten. He’d just use Rea’s guildmate to his advantage, or so he thought.

She out maneuvered him again, this time stepping in much closer to him as though she were trying to intimidate him. Was she not afraid of his strength after his display of power?

“Accept it or else.”

“I like the girl!” exclaimed Hanz. This was a show to them.

Nya wasn’t going to wait until the credits started rolling. She started to walk down the stairs, towards Amon, and he knew that she was going to add to his troubles. His frustration with the blonde woman grew exponentially since he now had to deal with more of a headache than he was currently prepared for.

He gave in and went through his friend requests to accept hers. Once she got the notification that he had done so, she gave him a curt bow and excused herself. “I’ll be in contact, thank you!”

She scurried off, leaving him alone with the representatives of the guilds. Nya was halfway down the stairs when a hand clasped her shoulder. Amon didn’t recognize her as one of the characters he had more than a neutral relationship with, so he wasn’t sure why she was intervening. Her name was Juno, and she was the guildmaster of the Empire.

Why a bigshot like her was even here was absolutely beyond him, but her presence was imposing. He was thankful that she stepped in.

“Tread lightly, Child. You’ll invoke the wrath of Mother if you carelessly put your hands on my little brother.”