Tenno's thoughts kept clouding his judgment. If Kiara was here, she'd say, "Don't do this!" or "It's bad to kill people!" but he didn't care anymore.
"Kiara isn't here because of them. She couldn't wait for me because they kept harassing us," Those thoughts kept resounding in his mind, and his body only acted according to what he desired to do.
When Tenno got close enough behind their clueless backs, he gripped the metal staff and swung it on one man's left temple. The man went off-balance while Tenno continued to push his staff downwards until the man's head slammed onto the ground.
"Wh--?!" Manro exclaimed in surprise. Before he could register what was happening, Tenno struck Manro's head with the staff as hard as he could. An audible CLANG was heard all throughout the small area after his strike connected with the thief's head. The burly thief fell on his rear as he held his head, "Ughh... Fuck, you're dead to me, brat..."
It wasn't enough to knock him out like the previous man, but it was more than enough to concuss him. "Seems like your head is just as hard as your fist. Too bad there's nothing in there," Tenno taunted him before kicking the concussed man to send him off-balance, landing on his back.
"You little--!" Manro's other lackey charged him. He was close enough to render his metal staff only as a blocking tool, which made itself useful when he blocked the punch to his face. The man swung his clenched fist towards Tenno's right temple, but no punch came when he motioned his staff to block it. He fell for the feint, resulting in a punch connecting to Tenno's gut.
The man followed with a forehead hit, to which Tenno reacted, but he was half a second slower than he anticipated. While he avoided an attack that could've stunned him enough to get killed, his nose received the brunt of the force, causing it to bleed and dislocate.
The impulse from the punch made Tenno retaliate harder, changing his grip on the staff to hit the man's cheek and kicking his crotch once he stepped back.
"AAAAAAGHH!" The man shouted in agony. His knees fell, clutching his privates to ineffectively ease the intense, pulsing pain from his crotch.
He planted his left foot on the ground, raising his folded right leg while his body turned toward the man's head, increasing the momentum of his kicking motion. In one swift turn, Tenno unfolded his right leg as his ankle hit the man's head, followed by a CRACK. The force of his kick was so strong that it displaced some of the trash on the ground where the man's limp head laid.
Tenno's expressionless eyes stared at the man on the ground without remorse, uncertain if he'd ever get up again. His tunneling vision rejected everything in his perspective except for the person he was fighting, including the one person he should never have taken his eyes off.
"You never told me you were this strong, brat."
He felt an intimidating presence coming from the left. Tenno managed to block the attack barely with his metal staff, as Manro's attack was enough to send him off balance for a few moments. The punch made Tenno's hand irritatingly numb, but he wasn't fast enough to react to a following attack from him.
Manro's punch to the stomach sent Tenno flying to the metal fence post. He coughed, puking out some vomit that refluxed from the sheer force of that punch. "As I've said, y-you're pretty strong for someone dumb..." Even at this moment, Tenno managed to taunt Manro.
"You will not survive on that tower, you little fucker. Let me tell you something about this world..." Manro spread his arms, his crazed eyes showing he knew he had complete power and authority over Tenno.
"This world follows a certain principle: kill or be killed, Tenno! The weakest trash's right is to grovel under the tyrannical rule of those Tower-living assholes, while the strongest gets to live on the top! Why do you think we are surrounded by shit on this floor, brat?!" He erupted into a laughing mania, "That bitch who went inside the Tower two years ago? I bet she's dead already!"
Tenno's blank stare at Manro turned into a slight smile. He first chortled to suppress himself, but his uncontrollable laugh came anyway. He was in his own laughing mania, ignoring the blood spilling from his dislocated nose. Manro's arrogant expression turned into confusion and fear as if to say, "Why the hell is he laughing?"
"What did you think I was doing earlier?" Tenno blankly smiled at Manro.
For once, a genuine fear stirred up inside Manro. He had never seen the young man acting like this before. His gaze turned to his two mates. One of them was lying on the ground, his lifeless eyes looking at Manro. A puddle of blood formed underneath his corpsed head impaled on something sharp that went through the full length of his head.
As for the other man, his head twisted a full 90 degrees from the force of Tenno's kick earlier. His half-open mouth leaked with dark blood as the flies from the landfills began to feast on the dead bodies.
What set off Manro's fear was not when the kid killed his mates but his eerie, expressionless smile. Manro's "power and authority" began to crumble. He didn't look at Tenno like a pushover brat anymore, but someone different. Someone sinister.
"Tell me, Tenno... Does death make a difference in this world?" Manro's voice trembled, "I've been in your place. I killed many. I imposed fear. I wanted absolute power, and yet--"
"It can only mean one thing, right?" Tenno interrupted him with a mocking smile, "You're a fucking reject."
Manro burst into anger, "SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!"
Manro rushed towards Tenno with a raised fist. He was able to block his punch with the staff, but he knew he couldn't keep blocking. His attacks were getting increasingly strong and even he knew that if he got grabbed like before, he wouldn't stand a chance.
Manro rapidly attempted to grab Tenno, evading all of his attacks as he continued speaking, "You think you have a grand desire, brat?! The Tower will never accept people like you."
"I'd rather die there instead of rotting in this place." And then, Tenno rushed Manro.
Tenno swung the metal staff, attacking the thief's left temple, but he moved his arm to block it. He swung again, making a direct hit to Manro's forehead but it visibly affected him.
He continuously attacked Manro with his blunted weapon, showing high dexterity in handling his weapon. Tenno's attacks weren't strong or impactful, but they kept Manro on the defensive. His hits delivered a mental image of his dead mates, along with a message that made Manro hesitate to attack him. "If I let my guard down, I will lose."
Tenno threw his only weapon at Manro. It was a lousy throw, but it made Manro cover his face while anticipating a strong attack. Instead, it was a distraction for Tenno to give him a split second of movement.
Tenno dove to the side towards Manro's blind spot. After positioning behind Manro, he jumped and wrapped his legs around the thief's body. Using his weight, he pulled the bigger man down to the ground. Manro's weight over him caused him to grunt as he landed on his back, but his legs kept a firm grip on his torso.
Manro struggled to move under Tenno's iron grip, flailing his legs and trying to escape, to no avail. He felt Tenno's hand clutch his chin and the other hand on the opposite side of his head. Manro didn't know what Tenno was about to do him, but the bubbling fear of death in his chest exploded.
"You're never going to survi--"
Crack.
After Tenno twisted Manro's head, he stopped speaking. His heavy and lifeless body went limp on top of Tenno's. He pushed his body aside to sit on the ground, doing so without caring for the man he just killed.
Tenno stared at Manro with his neck cracked, along with the two other men whom he have killed, "I'm sorry, Kiara. I couldn't bury them like you've done for others."
Tenno already had experience fighting stronger people with Kiara, but he had never had the urge to kill them. Now that Manro was gone, he neither felt guilty nor scared.
He felt liberated.
He was finally free from the man tormenting him for years ever since Kiara left him for the Tower. He relocated his nose back in place to stop the bleeding, and the sharp pain in his sinuses made him snap back to reality from his absent daze.
"Right. I have to go to the Entry Test before someone from the gang notices me," He crawled over to search dead Manro's pockets. As expected, his gold coin pouch was there. A small rope around it was still tied in a knot, indicating that they hadn't taken from its contents.
Stolen story; please report.
Tenno grabbed his staff on the ground, wiping the blood off his nose. Without looking back, he started to walk to the Tower. He didn't know if it was only him, but the World Tree looked more majestic than ever.
Surely, he can never return to this Floor again after what he has done.
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After people had heard that three men were killed this morning, the awoken dwellers of Floor 1 were rushing in the opposite direction of the Tower and towards the scene of particular interest. Rumors quickly escalated because the men Tenno just killed was the boss of the gang that ruled over this floor. Scared, uninvolved citizens hid in their houses. Gang members argued whether a fellow member had killed him out of spite or hatred. It was such a chaotic morning that Tenno appreciated.
Fortunately for him, nobody suspected the "pushover brat Tenno" to be the sole assailant of those three people.
The sheer size of the World Tree became much more apparent the closer he walked. At the same time, slum houses and landfills began to disappear over the distance, replaced by giant brownish-silver roots that protruded far from the Tree.
Two mossy and inanimate gladiator statues stood on both sides of the dirt path, guarding the empty white ceramic stalls. Written on a mossy wooden sign were the words "Floor 1 Shopping Area." Aside from Tenno, there was no one else in the area.
It was the only place that didn't feel like part of the slums of Floor 1 but rarely did anyone go to the area because the stalls accepted gold coins as currency. Those gold coins could only be gotten from the trash chute polluting the Floor or when the coins randomly fell from the sky and landed anywhere.
These stalls had signs inscribed on the counter: food and water, clothing, and building materials were some of the few but no stalls selling weapons or harmful objects. He focused on the stall closest to the Tree, which was distanced from the other shopping stalls by a few more gladiator statues on both sides of the path. The statues were inanimate, but Tenno wondered why such statues were present on a trash-filled floor.
The white ceramic stall furthest from the shop had the words inscribed on the top of the counter, "Test Admission." It was the last stall before the path extended to a dead end, which was the enormous trunk of the World Tree.
After approaching the Test Admission stall, Tenno uttered, "I would like to take the Entry Test."
Upon closer inspection, the stall's interior was dark and empty. The wooden shelves were clean and intact, and the inner walls shone reflectively under the morning light. The stalls were oddly kept for a place that was as desolate as the shopping area. "Hello?" Tenno called out, but no one responded.
Tenno tried to reach his hand inside the stall, wondering if anyone was even inside it. All of a sudden, the whole interior flashed with glitches. He retracted his hand and held his metal staff at the ready, surprised at the new phenomenon he had just encountered.
"I always thought people ran these stalls. Not hyper-realistic screens."
The glitching stopped, and the stall's interior returned to its original image from earlier. What was different now was a two-dimensional panel appeared at the center of the stall.
Confirmation of pre-purchase: Entry Test Ticket Note: You can only purchase and use this ticket once. Proceed?
"Umm... Yes!"
Please put a payment of 100 GOLD on the counter.
Tenno placed the pouch of gold coins on the counter. Small wisps of light emerged from the pouch, growing brighter with each second as if it was counting the number of coins. Once the light dissipated, only the empty pouch remained, and the coins inside disappeared.
Special Item: Entry Test Ticket
"What do you seek, dear child?
Take the test, see if you dare.
Walk forth, unleash your desires without spare."
[Description: Grants one-time access to the Tower.]
"The coins disappeared..." Tenno said in wonder. He grabbed the empty leather pouch from the counter and opened it, revealing a new object inside.
A ticket not bigger than the size of his thumb. It had alternating colors of reflective gold and blue rectangles until both colors converged into a circle in the center. "I got the ticket, but what do I do with this now?"
"Should I go back and ask people what to do with my ticket?" Tenno mused, "No. That would be stupid. I'd get jumped by thieves instead."
Tenno looked around for help, but no one else was in the area except him. Without any other options, his attention turned to the stall. The panel on the screen still remained, with the exact words written as earlier.
"Walk forth and unleash your desires without spare," he repeated. "Is this a riddle?"
"If so, then I'm already stumped." Tenno continued his words in his mind. The gladiators--do they move? Does he have to defeat them like some hidden test to open the entrance to the Tower? Or maybe he can ask the stall for help if it is even conscious in the first place?
Regardless, he didn’t have any leads.
After a bit of loitering around the area, examining the statues, and even forcing himself inside the stall, there was no indication where he should go—until he found himself staring at the trunk of the Tree beyond the path from the ticket stall.
He exhausted all his options, but the trunk of the Tree anchored in front of him struck him the most. Why was there a path here that led to a part of the Tree, and why was the Test Admission stall conveniently near it? Tenno looked at his golden blue entry ticket and the trunk in front of him before uttering the words from the riddle, “Walk forth.”
With nothing to lose, he stepped inside the trunk. His body seamlessly phased inside, and a rushing wave of lightheadedness, peace, and pleasure hit him. Tenno heard the clang of his metal staff dropping on the ground behind him, and it was the last thing he had ever heard before he immersed himself in the black void of what he had entered.
He could see his body floating around the black void—but his mind contradicted what he saw. He saw all kinds of colors, yet all those combined turned deep black. Despite so, he could see every single color that passed his eyes. He felt as if he was standing on solid ground, but his body was flowing like water while being light as air. He was feeling an amalgamation of everything happening all at once, but at the same time, he could comprehend everything while not remembering what he had seen or felt in the previous second.
The few seconds inside this void felt like an eternity, but that sense of eternity broke when the same 2D panel appeared before his eyes, filling the black yet colorful void in the background.
Consumable Item: Entry Test Ticket consumed.
[Confirmed bearer of Yggdrasil's Branch. Removed Yggdrasil's Branch from your being.] [Bestowing gratitudes...]
System Rule Modification: Retainers increased from 2 to 13. System Rule Modification: (Enlightenment Attribute: Skill Evolution) granted. Granted Knowledge Passive: Halcyon. All gratitudes bestowed. The Y-System thanks you on Yggdrasil's behalf. Gratitudes censored to overseeing parties by request of XXXXXXXX.
The Seeker Association has recognized Tester Tenno and their desire to ascend the Tower. Granted Common Accessory Item: Status Band. New Tester Skill Randomizer activated... Success 3x! All System Skills available on Floor 2 onwards. Tester prerequisites accomplished.
[WELCOME TO THE TOWER OF YGGDRASIL.]