Uriel was surprised, for he had thought he had been killed by the boulder coming toward him. But here he was, alive. Remembering something, Uriel quickly checked the side of his stomach. He still remembered that a stake had pierced the side of his stomach, causing a large wound.
But, what he saw at the spot where the stake had pierced his stomach, made him widen his eyes, shocked.
"Holy shit... is it healed?"
Until recently, Uriel remembered seeing his skin and flesh pierced by the stake — yet, as if the whole thing had been a lie or illusion, there were no signs of injury. Despite this, Uriel did not connect everything to an illusion so quickly. Upon closer inspection, Uriel noticed that his shirt was still torn and even had blood stains on it. All of this indicated that the wound had indeed been real, but for some reason was healed.
In addition, Uriel soon realized that his previously broken bones had recovered to the point that he doubted that he had been buried in large blocks of the earth until recently.
It was unlikely that he had been taken to a doctor, after all, he could not see any medical apparatus around. Apart from a few torches that lit up the place, there was nothing else around.
'Wait... torches?!'
Uriel's eyes widened as he realized that he was forgetting the most important thing — where he was.
Looking more closely at his surroundings, Uriel realized that he was in a temple-like place. The place had rocky walls that looked as if they would not collapse even if a car hit them, and huge pillars with torches hanging from them. In addition, between the pillars, there were murals on the walls carrying different designs of them.
Uriel squeezed his eyes shut finding the landscape strangely familiar, although he couldn't remember where he had seen it before.
He was about to stand up when his narrowed eyes suddenly widened.
Shwaaaa—
Countless blue particles suddenly concentrated on a single point and began to take the shape of a humanoid figure. It didn't take long for the blue particles to disappear, revealing a person in front of Uriel.
"A-Ah... Fuck..."
It was a young man with silver blond hair slightly covered by a cap turned back and black earrings in his ears. He wore a plain black shirt in contrast to his white shorts and navy blue sneakers.
The young man suddenly opened his eyes, revealing a pair of piercing ruby-like red eyes. As if sensing Uriel's presence, the red eyes immediately turned to him.
Uriel held his breath and avoided opening his mouth and shouting the name that was on the tip of his tongue.
He was too shocked to put it into words, this was because he was able to recognize the young man in front of him immediately. In fact, if he didn't recognize him, he couldn't claim to be a true fan of his favorite webtoon. After all, the person in front of him was a character from his favorite webtoon — Tower of God.
Vice leader of Wolhaiksong, the Ranker at 4th in Rank, the Ray Barracuda, Irregular — there were simply too many titles and nicknames to go around for the person in front of him, but Tower of God fans knew him mostly by his name.
'Urek Mazino...!'
Uriel's heart began to beat faster.
'Puhahahah! Shit, am I dreaming?! Yes! Everything must be a dream!'
It was too unreal to be true. Suddenly an earthquake occurs that ends up killing him buried on the ground and he wakes up in a mysterious place with Urek Mazino already in front of him — if he told anyone, how many people would believe it? He did not believe it, so he connected everything to a dream.
Uriel even thought it would be okay if it was all a dream since that meant the earthquake never happened and he was still alive, probably in his bed at home.
The more he thought about it, the more Uriel's lips rose.
Until recently he had been in a life or death situation, and now he was here dreaming about Urek Mazino in front of him.
Oblivious to his internal distractions, Urek Mazino asked Uriel.
"Who are you?"
".....?"
However, Uriel did not answer. It was not because he did not know how to answer, nor because he was too surprised to speak.
'What is he saying?'
—It was simply because he could not understand the words spoken by Urek. It seemed that everything Urek was saying was from a language he didn't understand or even know.
Uriel was impressed with himself, as his brain was able to replicate or invent a completely random language in his dream.
"Aren't you going to answer me?" Urek asked again while raising an eyebrow.
"Ugh, I really don't understand what you mean..."
"Huh? What did you say?"
Urek was extremely confused as he realized that he didn't understand Uriel's words either.
"Hmm. Let's see..."
Uriel thought of a way to communicate. Suddenly, he had an idea and pointed at Urek with his index finger and said, "You. Urek Mazino."
"Oh? Do you know who I am?! Well, I guess I'm really quite famous, hahaha!"
Although he couldn't understand her words, Uriel realized that Urek was smug and excited. He was also excited by this, not being able to keep his lips from rising. Since Urek had reacted to the name Urek Mazino, there was no doubt that the person in front of him really was Urek Mazino. However, that seemed strange for a dream.
'Have I ever had such a vivid dream?'
The more he thought about it, the more Uriel frowned. He even considered the possibility that he had been drugged but realized that his mind was in perfect condition.
However, before he could continue his ramblings, a third voice came up beside him and Urek.
"Kuku. Hello, boys."
".....?"
"—!"
Unlike Urek who turned around in confusion, Uriel's eyes widened looking at the being that appeared in front of the two of them. A strange smile appeared on his face seeing the rabbit-like humanoid figure.
'Now I see. This cave, Urek Mazino suddenly appearing...'
Uriel now had a hypothesis of where he was and had even more doubt if this was really a dream.
At the same time, as if confirming Uriel's thoughts and responding to Urek's confused look, the rabbit bowed deeply and introduced himself to both of them with a smile.
"Nice to meet you, boys. My name is Headon and I am the Keeper of the Lower Floor of the Tower. I offer you my sincere welcome to the tower."
Headon.
As soon as that name came up, Uriel was absolutely sure where he was.
The place where those who came from outside the Tower, the Irregulars appear after opening the door and are tested if they are worthy to climb the tower — the 1st Floor of the Tower.
Headon smiled showing his sharp, bared teeth, before asking Urek and Uriel, "So, boys, what do you seek in the Tower?"
"Ah!"
As if suddenly awakened, Urek made a sound of surprise and seemed to remember something. At the same time, Uriel looked up with slightly frowned eyebrows remembering why Urek Mazino had entered the tower. Urek entered the tower following someone, the most mysterious existence in the tower—
"Phantaminum!"
—an Irregular and called of the Riddler, Phantaminum. Urek wanted to know where he was.
"Do you know where Phantaminum is?!"
"Phantaminum, hmm...."
Headon scratched his chin as he looked Urek up and down. After a moment, he continued, "I don't know where he is. However, if you climb to the top of the tower—"
Pointing his long staff at the ceiling of the Floor, Headon smiled.
"—You will find your answer."
"Climb to the top of the tower? That sounds like fun!"
Headon laughed at Urek's excited reaction and looked at Uriel from the corner of his eyes.
"And you boy, what do you seek in the tower?"
"Huh? What do I seek?"
"Yes, what is your wish?"
"..."
Uriel couldn't find the words to answer Headon, after all, he had appeared here out of nowhere and wasn't even sure if he really was in a dream or real life. However, there was an answer that appeared in his mind.
"I... I wish to never be beneath anything, do not need to follow rules or orders, I don't want to be stuck in a tedious routine — I wish to have the power to do whatever I want."
That was his answer. To become someone who is never beneath something or someone, someone who makes his own rules.
Headon squeezed his beautiful cyan eyes shut and smiled deeply at Uriel.
"I understand—"
"Hey, Headon, right? You understand what he said?!"
However, before Headon could answer Uriel, Urek interrupted him with a series of questions. Without responding to Urek's answer, Headon made a surprised sound as if he had remembered something only now.
"My mistake, my mistake..."
Pooong—!
Shaking his head, Headon waved his staff causing two floating black orbs to appear in front of Urek and Uriel. It was not difficult for Uriel to identify what those orbs were, after all, they were very common in the Tower of God, however, it was a different case for Urek...
"What's that?"
Headon smiled and was about to explain, when—
Wrong—!
—Urek touched the orb and a white light radiated from the orb and connected to Urek's arm, seeming to form a link between the two.
Urek quickly withdrew his hand with a surprised expression.
"What was that?"
"Pocket has connected to you. Just say 'invisible mode' and she will disappear. Since there are many different languages in the tower, this device helps for communication between those languages."
"I see."
Nodding his head in understanding, Urek turned to Uriel and asked him with an excited smile on his face, "Hey, man! You understand me now?"
To his displeasure, Uriel had not understood what he said. But, it was relatively simple to solve that problem. Uriel looked at Pocket in front of him and stretched out his hand toward it.
Wooong—!
Similar to how it happened to Urek, a white light connected Uriel to the Pocket and he was surprised when he could understand the question Urek asked next.
"Now what? Do you understand?"
"Damn it, is this really a dream...?"
"Huh? Dream?"
"Ah, nothing," Uriel replied immediately. He was really surprised that Pocket could make someone understand another language so easily. To him, such technology existing was totally surreal, that is of course, if his suspicions that this was not a dream were real.
"Oh, you can understand me! Hahaha! I won't introduce myself since you already know my name, but, what is your name?"
Urek seemed to have become excited.
"My name is Uriel Elune. Also, Uriel is my first name, and Elune is my family name or last name."
Uriel explained to Urek in detail, after all, Tower of God was a Korean webtoon in which most of the characters have their first names usually after their family name.
At that moment, Headon who had been silent the whole time spoke again.
"Since you two have finished your exchange of words, I think it's time to start the test."
"What test?"
"The test that will decide if you are worthy of climbing the tower, you faced one on each Floor, and this is the 1st Floor test—"
Kooong—!
Headon pointed with his staff at the wall behind Urek and Uriel.
The two immediately turned around and saw the wall slowly disappearing as if it were an illusion.
Kugugugong—!
Grids appeared as soon as the wall disappeared, revealing a cage with a water-like substance inside it.
At that moment, a forced smile appeared on Uriel's face.
'It's in those moments that I wish this was all really a dream...'
"—The Ball."