Azmar hadn't changed much in the time I had been gone. To be safe, I kept a hood over my head as a lame attempt to disguise myself. Though, with Mezu sitting on my shoulders gripping my hair through my hood, I don't know if people could recognize me in the first place.

Luckily Alcoroth wasn't visible; a floating elf-like being would certainly grab more attention than Mezu.

"So, why are we not heading to the tower?"

"I just want to see the state of my old guild first."

I didn't like to think about what had happened. But I was pretty sure that Chase and Valera at least had a chance to still be alive.

"I don't think I need to remind you that you're not allowed to share the details of your quest or Mezu with just anyone."

"I know I know, but I don't know anything about the towers or what the guilds are doing there. If you say they've stopped climbing for no clear reason, then they must be stopping people from getting past them. I don't really want to go in without any understanding at all."

"To think a lazy bastard like you would think things through like this."

"No need to insult me twice in one sentence."

While I had gotten used to him as we traveled, I still wasn't that big of a fan of Alcoroth. The training was hell and his attitude was on a whole other level, but in the end, it's not like I had that big of a choice but to deal with him.

I sighed and shifted my shoulders as Mezu fidgeted.

It wasn't long until we arrived at what used to be my guild's building. Everything about it looked the same except for the sign. It no longer only read “Wandering Pegasus,” but in smaller writing in the bottom corner of the sign was “seventh wing,” which wasn't good. Affiliate guilds of Winged Mercy were all numbered wings from 1 to 12. The larger the number the newer they were. It was odd though seeing it blatantly written out. Usually, the larger guilds didn't openly advertise the guilds that they were controlling.

I didn't linger on the sign and continued down the road, walking past a couple of buildings before stepping off the road into an alleyway.

"Wasn't that your guild hall? I thought you said you wanted to go."

"It's not exactly the same as I remember, so we'll just be going through the backdoor."

I repositioned Mezu so he was hanging on my back. During training, I had gotten quite used to him sitting like that, and it made my movement slightly less restricted.

I went further into the alley until I reached a large wooden crate. I moved it out of the way and pulled open the sewage bars it was covering. I climbed down the ladder into the sewers and backtracked until we were underneath my old guild.

If you weren't one of the founding members, you didn't know about it, but from the guild leader's office, there was an escape route. The exit was into the sewers and without knowing that it was there you couldn't even start to look for a way to open it from the outside. I took off the necklace I wore around my neck and slid my hand against the wall until I found the small hole. It looked like all the other imperfections there, and I wasn't too sure I had picked the right one. I honestly had only done this a couple of times and I wasn't alone on those occasions.

I put the charm into the hole, felt a little click, and then the door opened quietly. I slipped inside and closed the door with the lever to my left.

"Well, that's handy."

I laughed and started to walk up the stairs in the dark. I kept my bearings by keeping a hand on the wall to my left.

"The person who built this building in the first place was apparently a famous aristocrat. He didn't want to be seen entering the front door, so he made this back door. I found it with a former guild member when we first joined."

Alcoroth was glowing slightly so it wasn't terribly dark, but I slowed as we reached the top of the stairs and heard two voices speaking, only one of which I recognized as Chase's.

"Thank you for the report, Alecia."

"Of course, Guild Master"

The footsteps receded and the door opened and closed. I waited a moment in case there was someone else in the room though. When I was about to open the door, Mezu pulled on my hood stopping me.

"You could have just allowed her to come back another time." Chase said.

His voice was muffled but I could hear it quite well since the guild master's chair would be right in front of the hidden door. Still, what the hell happened for Chase to end up as the guild master?

"If it was anyone else visiting, would you have told her to come back later?"

This was a woman's voice, but I didn't recognize it at all.

"The more interruptions the longer this whole thing takes and neither of us wants to be here."

"Don't be so harsh, I enjoy our conversations."

There was a pause and then a harsh laugh from the woman.

"Fine, I'll get to the point. Your branch has made it past the probationary period and you will now only have to see a representative or me every three months."

There was even more silence, I could only imagine the look of utter uninterest that could be showing on Chase's face right now.

"You should look more excited. I thought you'd be happy to see less of me."

"I am merely showing respect for the official meeting. I will be sure to celebrate with my staff at a later time."

"And here I never thought you'd make it to the end. I was sure you'd get frustrated, and we'd have to replace you like we did your predecessor. Well no matter, make sure your bi-weekly reports are sent over on time. Just because your probation is over doesn't mean you can slack off."

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

More footsteps receded and the door closed firmly. Mezu's hand let go of my hood but I still waited a bit till I thought she was completely gone.

"Fucking bitch!"

With Chase now swearing, I figured it was long enough, so I opened the door.

I was greeted by an arrow almost directly in my face.

“Woah Chase it’s just me.”

I mean probably not the best choice of words but what else was I supposed to say?

“Quartz?”

He lowered his bow slowly, I couldn’t really read what his expression meant, but it changed several times until he dropped the bow completely and pulled me into a hug.

"What the hell? If you were alive, you should have come back sooner."

The hug not only was completely unexpected, but it didn't last long since Mezu was on my back, and Chase quickly moved his arms when he realized he wasn't just hugging me.

"I would have come sooner if I could, but I ended up getting kicked out of the dungeon and pretty far away."

"As glad as I am that you're alive, you really shouldn't be here."

"Chase, what the hell happened? Why are you guild master? Where's Surge?"

Chase sighed and sat back down in his chair. Mezu climbed off my back and started wandering around the office.

"Shouldn't you introduce me to your friend there?"

We both looked over to see Mezu playing with the magnifying glass near the map that was posted on the wall.

"Oh yeah, Chase this is Fluffy I kind of ended up in a contract with him."

"How? You aren't a summoner."

I rubbed the back of my head nervously unsure of how to really put this.

"Yeah, I don't really know either, I kind of just woke up with him there."

Chase sighed.

"You really should think of a better lie than that. I'll let it slide though. But you really can't stay here. Officially you're dead, honestly I think you should go into the countryside of some country and just retire."

"And if I didn't want to do that?"

"You could find Valera in the tower."

"She's in the tower?! Why?"

"She can explain the rest if you decide to find her. Honestly, though, I really can't talk much with you."

He opened his shirt and showed me a seal on the base of his neck.

Alcoroth floated closer to him to get a better look. His being there, without Chase even noticing, was a bit hard for me to just ignore.

"Valera's alive, but I don't know where she is. All I know is that you should be able to find her on the 21st floor."

Alcoroth moved out of the way and seemed to be flipping through something again but I couldn't see.

Chase turned away from me and fished around in one of his drawers. I heard a few mechanisms click, and then he handed me a small token.

“Take this to the Sparrow’s Glory inn.”

“Wait? What about the others, what happened that day?”

“He can’t say anything with that seal, don’t ask any specific questions.”

Alcoroth said with a grin on his face that had me concerned.

“I’m sorry Quartz, if you’re going to try to get into the tower you should really go as soon as possible.”

His face tensed and he tried forming words with his mouth, but nothing came out.

“It’s a shame, your wolf didn’t get a proper burial.”

“Your wolf?” Alcoroth asked.

I froze for a moment.

“I put a marker- “

“Thanks, Chase, you’re right I should probably get going.”

I went over and picked Mezu up holding him awkwardly in front of me. I went to the door, but Chase stopped me and held out a bag.

"Take this at least."

I hesitated, but Mezu already grabbed it and started playing with the strap.

"Don't die."

"I don't think Fluffy'd let that happen."

I couldn't look him in the eye and left the room quickly, closing the door behind me. I rushed down the stairs back out into the sewers before my legs gave out on me.

Mezu managed to turn himself around in my lap and poked at my face, tilting his head confused. I ruffled his hair, forcing a smile.

"It's nothing. I bet you're hungry, let's grab something before we head to the tower."

Mezu nodded eagerly and stood up, holding the bag out for me. I couldn't quite take it yet, but Alcoroth already grabbed it and shoved it in a storage spell.

"Let's get going, it'll be night soon so we can go to the back door."

I nodded and stood up heading back down the passageway.

It was just past midnight when we made it to the back of the tower. The Tower itself had its own fort built around it. The back, though, was set into a cliff that overlooked a river. I had just spent the past two hours climbing up the cliff following an excited Mezu, who had climbed it much faster than me. I lay on my back almost completely exhausted panting.

"We need to work on your stamina."

"It's not the time to complain about that. Aren't you supposed to be getting that back door open?"

"I've already got it ready, we're really just waiting on you. If it wasn't for that stupid guild, we wouldn't even have to be going through the back door. What is with these lesser beings and thinking they have the right to interfere with the tower?"

I laughed slightly. "They're the least we need to worry about."

"Don't even get me started again about those insects."

I had already endured a long rant from him after we overheard some adventures talking in the market.

The situation in the tower was worse than I was expecting. The front door was being overseen by the adventurer's guild and you weren't allowed through without proper identification. With me being declared dead in a dungeon, I didn't have identification and trying to get a new card would make things a lot more complicated.

After the first twenty floors which serve as the tutorial levels, you get the chance to leave the tower for the first time on the twenty-first floor. However, the elevator within the tower was managed by the top four guilds in conjunction with the main Adventurer's guild. The official statement was that no adventurer would be allowed to use the elevator without having an Adventurer's card as a form of Identification.

However, apparently, it was also almost impossible to even get to the elevator without going through the guild recruiters. So, you effectively couldn't use the elevator unless you joined a guild. However, the guilds inside the tower and those outside functioned differently.

If you were part of a guild outside, once you entered that wouldn't count as your guild membership. Effectively you would have to join a guild to then take the elevator and leave, only to no longer be part of your former guild. And unless you were part of one of the top four guilds, you wouldn't be able to stay outside of the tower for long.

Once marked off as a tower challenger you wouldn't be allowed to challenge the normal dungeons that appeared outside of the tower. So, either you were stuck no longer being an adventurer but free from the control of the main guilds, or you were stuck forever attached to the tower. If you were a member of the top guilds though, you would easily be funded to find lodging and would most likely be given other work to do on the outside.

Luckily for me, I didn't need to be too concerned about joining a guild since I had no plans to leave the tower until I climbed to the top. I was still worried, that was the only information I was able to hear about the tower. Even Alcoroth wasn't aware of the current state of things. He lacked “administrative access,” whatever that meant. I knew I'd have to meet up with Valera as soon as I could so we could learn more about what was actually happening.

I sat up and stretched out my arms before standing up fully. Mezu was already eagerly waiting at a newly formed wooden door in the side of the tower.

"Alright I get it, you're excited."

I walked over to him and ruffled his hair. I let him climb onto my shoulders before pushing the door open. The entrance was practically filled with glowing light, so I quickly stepped in and closed it behind me so we wouldn't attract any attention.

The light dimmed till it was just a soft glow from the floor.

There was a ding, and with it, a banner in front of me popped up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Welcome Challenger of the tower. Confirm your entry by pressing below

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was a rectangle with a smiley face on it, so I pushed it.

A ding rang out and then there was a soft female administrative-like voice along with text.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Welcome to the tower Challenger.

Your information will be loaded into the system.

You will be teleported to the first floor where you will face your first challenge.

Good luck.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was a puff of air from the floor at my feet and a circle of blue glowing light drew itself around us.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In 3.... 2.... 1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~