The door shut behind me quickly, and in front of me was a pale grey brick hallway. I continued walking and could start to hear the sounds of cheers.

As I walked, the amount of light increased until I stepped out into the base of a colosseum, and my eyes needed to readjust to the bright sunlight. There was a crowd of people, mostly humans, that stood in the center of the ring in front of a podium with a wooden announcement board.

The walls around the ground floor were decently high, and where they stopped the stands started. They were filled with people of various races and ages. It all felt a bit unreal, and I doubted that these were real people (not people from outside the tower) probably like the ones Fluffy massacred in the village on floor six. Ones that were there but would simply re-appear if you’d killed them once the floor reset for the next person.

I really could’ve done without the atmosphere. It was a bit too loud.

Soon a tall woman with short hair, simple (looked like it did its job type) armor, and a great sword strapped to her back, stepped onto the podium.

“Welcome to the twentieth floor! You have reached the tournament. The goal to pass the floor is simple, make it to the quarter-finals. Your rewards will differ depending on where you finish. You will not be able to kill your opponent on this floor. Any and all injuries you receive will be healed.

“You will all begin at the group stage. Each group will contain three climbers and two twentieth-floor inhabitants. The person marked as number one within the group will have the first match. If they lose against number two, they will be sent to their training ground. If they win, they will fight number three, and so on. If you are the last one standing in your group, you will move on to the main tournament.

“Your group’s number will be listed on the board. Group one will start first. Once you know your group number, take a token from the bin. Your training hall will be assigned by a lottery. If you’re not in group one head back down the hallway and take the first left to the waiting room.”

They all crowded around the board, but I waited till people started leaving before I went up to see for myself. There was no need to rush. If they didn’t have the ring cleared it wasn’t like they could start the matches. Once I got to the board, I saw that I was in group two and was the third to fight. I took a piece of wood from the bin in front of the board. It was a plain piece of wood with a string long enough to be a necklace attached to it. I turned away from the board and copied one of the other challengers in putting it around my neck.

This would be a lot different than I was expecting. If I got bad luck and my group members (including the floor inhabitants) were aura users or were stronger mages than what I’d experienced so far, I wasn’t going to make it out of the group stage for a while.

I followed the group of other participants heading down the hallway and we entered the waiting room they told us about. It was a large room, a bit too large to be positioned underneath the stadium seats. But it was the tower. Things didn’t really need to make too much sense. The room was sectioned off in two parts, a seating area and a training area with wooden weapons and wooden dummies.

Most of the people were seated watching the image of the arena on a large screen set high on a wall. But a few people were sparring with each other in the training space. I walked past the seating area and went to the far back corner of the room. I ignored the glances at my arm and set myself up in front of the dummy, closed my eyes, and started to try again. I didn’t know how many swings I got in; I was just trying to get used to the weight of the sword again.

I heard my group’s number being called and I opened my eyes. The dummy had quite a few dents in its armor and there were quite a few pieces of straw piled on the ground underneath it. But nothing any greater than that.

I went out following a guy in a robe and another swordsman. When we entered the arena, there were two beastkin waiting for us. One held a staff and the other held a great sword. They were both bear beastkin and looked like siblings. They, with the announcer from before, stood on an elevated fighting platform. There was only one set of stairs, and we waited a few feet from the bottom of it.

“Welcome group two, these two are your additional group members. Lawrence will be placed as number five and Clarence will be placed as number two.”

The announcer had gestured to who was who, and then they stepped down from the platform and stood with us.

I was really hoping that Clarence would win his match. Fighting against a mana user wouldn’t take too much of my energy, so I’d have enough for Lawrence. But I didn’t know where the others were placed.

The person carrying the sword had a serious looking face, and a few scars on the visible parts of his skin, which could mean a few things. Either he’s serious ‘cause he’s taking things seriously or he’s actually nervous, but good at controlling his face so it doesn’t show (then again could I even read his face well enough to tell) And his scars could either mean that he has a lot of fighting experience or he’s just clumsy (my experience meant it could be either of the two, so not too useful either).

If he was serious and had a lot of battle experience, I didn’t see myself beating him. But if he was nervous and clumsy, then I could beat him with my limited experience.

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Did I really want to win?

This floor was my chance to train on my own, without Alcoroth. If I could figure out my aura (if I have aura it) and get more and more practice with my sword, then not only will climbing be easier, but I’ll probably be considered more entertaining.

I would assume that watching someone just barely manage to win, versus watching someone win well, wouldn’t be as entertaining. And if the Monarch wanted entertainment, then I’d have to fight well.

I suddenly felt someone being thrown past me and realized that not only had the fight started but it had finished. The swordsman stood on the platform returning his sword to its sheath.

I looked behind me to see Clarence knocked out against the now cracked wall of the arena.

“What an exciting match! What a brilliant show of sword work. Up next we have another swordsman! Let’s see how he fairs against our current group champion.”

I gulped.

If the bear beastkin was thrown that distance, what chance did I stand?

I woke up in a room lit up by a window next to me. I really didn’t last very long in that fight.

Whether it was the fact that I was so inexperienced technically (that all my previous fights against the monsters I had met before I had just barely managed to win) or my luck was just so bad that I had gotten someone quite stronger than me as my first opponent.

I guess I’ll know next time. I sat up in bed and looked around the room. The walls and furniture were all made of wood, must’ve been teleported to my training quarters.

I got out of bed and left the room. It was part of a hallway, so I made a choice and went right, only to end up at a dead end, so I went the other way. I found some stairs and went down them to a deserted eating area type room.

Was I alone here?

I went to what I should’ve been the front door and opened it to step out into a yard. It was quite large, and it was separated into a training dummy area and a sparing area.

“Oh, wow they actually sent me someone.”

To my left on a wooden chair sat an older beastkin man, with long grey hair and a neat beard. He was sitting in a chair with a book in hand. His ears reminded me of a fox, but in his position, I couldn’t really see his tail, so he could’ve just been a wolf.

“Uhhh, hello.”

“Welcome to your training hall, how many rounds did you win?”

“I uhh, lost my first one.”

I laughed a bit nervous.

“Why’s that?”

“Honestly I don’t really remember the fight all that much.”

“Alright, well this is your assigned training hall. You will be spending your time here until it’s time for you to head to the next group stage.”

“Do I get a choice in going back or no?”

His eyes narrowed a bit before he raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, but why wouldn’t you want to?”

“I’m just trying to learn something so if I have to stop practicing just to lose another fight then what’s the point?”

“I see, well then. Meals will be announced and you’ll most likely be the only one here so have fun or whatever.”

I bowed my head slightly in thanks before heading over to the open sparring area. The penalty for my daily quest didn’t really seem to have happened, well if it could even happen. The penalty hasn’t changed since I first got it, and since there was no Alcoroth and no Mezu, it didn’t really seem as if it could be enforced. Either way might as well do it.

The light in the sky had dimmed by the time I heard a bell.

“Yo kid! Dinner!”

I turned to see him leaning out of a window.

I put my sword away and headed inside. I could always come out again later.

Inside the bottom floor were the tables I had seen earlier and there were two set places with food and a drink. I sat down at one and smiled at the sight of real food. It had been a while since I had eaten something that wasn’t just roughly cooked monster meat.

It was nice, warm, and seemed balanced. A soup with some stuff in it I wasn’t too familiar with but didn’t have any weird textures or tastes. The meat was probably a bird of sorts just by looking at the leg meat I was given, and the vegetables weren’t horrible. Just not too great on parts of them so I just left them aside.

“What are you trying to learn?”

“Aura, I guess, I can’t feel mana so figured I’d try that out.”

“How are you trying to train that?”

“Well, a book worm I know described to me the way to try to do it, so I’ve just been trying that Mostly just imaging work I think.”

“That’ll take you forever.”

I sighed and looked at him, really?

“What would be better then?”

“That depends on a lot of things.”

“Yeah, they told me there was a lot of factors when it came to it, but since they were just a book worm and can’t use aura, and since we don’t know what my other half is, then it kind of limited what we could do.”

“They’re right, if you met another aura user it would make things go faster.”

“Why?”

“Well, the key thing about learning aura is just learning what aura feels like. Aura runs through your body like your blood does, but you can’t feel your blood right?”

“I guess not.”

“So, if you knew another person with aura, they could simply use it on you until you learn what aura is. That’s how we train ours. And yes, there are other races that have more ways to do it, but your race doesn’t determine which would actually work on you.

“And then there’s the old-fashioned version which is to just put you in a life-threatening situation and hope your aura awakens before you die.”

I think I understood what he said, but where was I going to find an aura user unless this person just happened to be one? And that old fashioned version probably wouldn’t work on a floor where they’ll just heal you from those life-threatening situations, so it would never truly be life and death.

“Okay? But how does that help me?”

“Well, even though it was probably just an accident, you were put in my training hall so I could teach you aura.”

I looked at him. How could I possibly just happen to have this luck? There had to be a catch. I mean, I’m trying to learn aura and all of a sudden there just happens to be someone who can use aura and therefore teach me aura.

Well…

I mean, there was a chance that I had just gotten some help.

I don’t think I’ve seen a banner since I got on the floor, one didn’t appear when I entered the arena or when I woke up in the room earlier. Could it have been a monarch just trying to get me to learn something a bit quicker? I wouldn’t put it past them.

“So, you’d be willing to help me out?”

“Yeah, why not? I mean sitting here alone all the time really isn’t the most entertaining thing in the world.”

He stood up and stretched.

“Alright, we’ll start tomorrow. I’m going to head out and get a drink.”

I watched him leave the building. Where was he going? I mean it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, so was there a town or something just out of view?

He had left most of his meal, so I just took the liberty of finishing it. It would’ve been a waste to just throw it away.