I had forgotten how annoying the Tower could be with its teleportation trick earlier on. They loved to do this to newcomers, relying on the mystical feel to stun people. I shook my head, remembering how stunned I had felt at the beginning. Now it just seemed like a silly joke, one that is repeated so much it goes sour. But I knew I was almost done, and I would finally be back in the action.

The color flooded back in, and this time, so did the sound. I appeared in a crowded market place, under a large pavilion. Everywhere I looked, people pushed and pulled to get where they wanted to go. There was heavily packed sand underneath my feet, and dust floating lazily through the air, but I ignored all this as I studied the buildings lined up on either side of the road. They looked like typical old fashioned buildings, some made from timber and others made from stone. There was plenty of variety to the buildings, with some showing things such as armor, others showing weapons, and others still tempting the people walking by with food.

With the large variety of buildings and narrow roadways, it was quite easy to get lost amidst the bustle of people and shouting of peddlers. But I knew my way through this area, even after all the time spent away from the First Decade Shop Center. I had been stuck here for far longer than I wanted to admit, unfortunately. This run-around though, I would be sure to grab some more records with the speed I use to pass through here.

As I stood under the stone pavilion, off to the side of the main roadway, I felt more then saw a flash of light behind me, followed by a man running by me, in a rush to get where he needed to go. I took a second to recheck my points; 155 altogether. The frog creature had been right. I had a certified treasure trove of points, without any need to spend them on the basic knowledge and information most newbies needed to purchase. I could use every single point to prepare for the coming trials. With that thought in mind, I walked out of the pavilion, a destination clear in my head.

I made my way down the street, navigating through the seething mass of people. It was annoying, per usual, but I knew how to handle a crowd easily enough. I looked up at the signs hanging from the different shops, noting where I was quickly. I spotted the alley I needed and slipped inside. At least here, there were less people. Not by much, of course, but at least I no longer had to fight my way through the crowd. I made my way down through the alleyway, making a few turns before ending up at a… door in the wall. That was the best way to describe the absolutely normal looking entrance stuck in the middle of an otherwise smooth corridor. I reached down and twisted the knob on the plain-looking oak door, opening it.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

As I entered the shop with no name, it took a while for my eyes to adjust to the dim lighting. As cliche as it might seem to some people, the most normal of areas in the Wandering Tower were usually the most astonishing. Not always in a positive way, and sometimes even I was unsure how safe some of these areas were. But I needed some things from him, so I would have to face Faust and hope for a positive outcome.

I looked around after my eyes finished adjusting. As usual, the store was completely different then when I first saw it. Although I realized, if I came back in a few months I might recognize the shop layout again. I filed that thought away with a smile. I could cheat the system this crazy man had created. The annoying rule that caused his shop to change after every visitor, always with different items in it had frustrated me for years. Without it, maybe I could have planned my purchases, but the man thrived on chaos, so there had been no chance of any sort of planning ahead for me.

The shop this time around looked similar to a dusty bookstore, with books piled dangerously high, seeming to sway with a wind not available to the closed off room. There were also books resting on bookshelves, of course. The shelves themselves formed hallways leading like a maze through the store. This was one of the old man’s many tricks. To those who didn’t know him, this place would seem worthless. But the books rarely contained knowledge. Instead, no matter the container they came in, all the things scattered across the shop were items in true. Some out of myths, some rusty old axes. But even with Faust’s penchant for chaos, he still had a stable base of basic items for sale. That was what I was here for now. And maybe I had a hope to pick something out of the legends, but so what. Many others came here for that exact reason too.

As I made my way through the corridors of books, I skimmed the fingers of my left hand along the spines. I wasn’t looking for anything per say, but there was hope inside me that I would spot something.

All too soon though, I reached the center of the store, where a man looking to be in his 30s sat in a rocking chair, reading. Another of Faust’s little jokes of course. I called him an old man, but I truly had no true knowledge on him besides his name. Sometimes it was a beautiful woman, sometimes, a young child. He usually stayed in the same race, but even that wasn’t set in stone. Faust truly loved one thing to no end; Chaos. Hopefully I could get what I wanted from the man, but you never knew.