Neal hid behind a rock as he observed the clothes he was given. They were nothing special, if anything else they looked like clothes that were made a long time ago. The garments came with some sandals which seemed rather sturdy.
After getting dressed, the two began their stroll to the place Evans claimed the others were. Evans was a blonde light skinned man with average height and blue eyes. He didn't know much about him but Neal felt like he could be trusted.
As the two walked through the land, Neal for some reason missed the felling of walking in the nude. The thoughts of the intense cold he had faced should have been more than enough to discourage him, but obviously it didn't.
His eyes travelled across the plane picking out the remaining details he had missed earlier. It did not take too much time for him to notice this place was filled with only plant life. Creatures like insects and animals were all absent from the environment. In short, it was the perfect raising environment for plants.
The landscape was filled with hills going up and down, with the slope sliding downwards. Unlike the previous places, the environment was filled with less crystals; however, they did not fail in lighting up the environment perfectly.
"The expression you gave off earlier is totally normal. You are not the odd one among any of us," Evans spoke catching his attention.
"So all of you guys don't have any memories of your past life?"
"Yeah. Anytime we try to think of the past in anyway, our heads feel like it would explode. I guess that is the tower's way of discouraging us from doing that. However, for some reason we were aware of our names."
"Tower?.." Neal uttered dumbfounded.
At that moment, it made a lot of sense as to why the structure was tall enough to dwarf the mountains surrounding it.
"How could you tell?"
"Well a cave could never be this tall. The only structure i am aware of that could ever be this high is a tower."
"I see.." Neal said. He knew there was no arguing with the logic behind what he said. He felt he was the one who was wrong about this place being a cave.
"And sadly enough, that isn't all. Prepare yourself for what I am about to tell you."
The air around the two changed into a serious one out of the blue. After an unconscious gulp of saliva, Neal nodded his head, signaling to Evans that he was ready for whatever he was about to say.
"Listen, the tower is an unforgiving structure that tests one's will to survive. If your will is not strong enough, I doubt anyone could last two days in here."
Neal at the moment didn't have the slightest idea what he was talking about. The place was filled with plants and water which were all enough for one's survival.
As if catching a trail of his thoughts, Evans proceeded to speak once again. "Don't you want to remember who you are? Don't you want to go back home?"
Neal's eyes widened as he heard those two questions. They were able to stir up his heart in someway he could not understand. For some reason, his words caused his heart to beat faster. His eyes diluted, his throat felt as if there was something stuck in it and blood rushed through his veins.
'All this because of a question..' Neal thought to himself. 'That was by no means normal.'
"Look over there," Evans pointed to the left.
There rested a massive door which he felt was trying to pull everything into it. The interior possessed some kind of darkness that seemed to pull him into it. Around it, there were no form of crystals or plant life present. This only made it all the more ominous in Neal's mind.
"That doorway leads to the next floor. Out there dangerous monsters lurk the shadows in hopes of ending our lives."
"Monsters?" Neal couldn't believe his ears.
"Yeah, and they are pretty strong too," Evans answered after forcing a smile.
Neal came to an abrupt stop upon hearing all of this. This in turn stopped Evans in his tracks as well. Deep inside his mind, he was convinced that all of this was a lie. The question was "who wouldn't?" Even though he had no form of memories about the past, all this still felt like something out of a fantasy story.
"Trust me. Everything that I am telling you right now is the truth. The faster you accept that fact, the better it will be for you and all of us. I can easily tell what you are thinking because I was in the same position as you once."
Neal moved his gaze to him. In Evans eyes, he could see nothing but desperation on his face. The desperate feeling that all of this was fake or some kind of game. The reality of it though was that this was the truth, and there was no changing that.
"I know that sounds kinda impossible at the moment, though the tower isn't completely evil. When we arrived inside the structure, each of us got a basic understanding of how to fight. Our skills though, are not to impressive, hence we need to practice constantly. Though if I am being honest, everything in the tower is determined by one's will to survive. Everything in the tower runs by will."
Evans took a step forward before Neal instinctively followed behind him. The rest of the trip was quiet, though this was due to the thoughts that ran through both of their minds.
From the distance, Neal could notice some structures. He had to believe this was where the rest of the people Evans referred to lived. Upon reaching the area, the two walked into the largest structure in the area. Evans made it clear that this was a meeting hall just before they entered it's interior.
The moment Neal came into the midst of the people in the room, a feeling that he was being scouted rushed over him. In an instant, he could tell there were four people around; however, he could not help but wonder if those were the only people in the whole area.
"Evans, what took you so long?" A red haired man in the room spoke. Straight away, Neal could feel a surge of authority emanating from him.
Unlike Evans, he was large, had an intimidating stare and was muscular. Most of all, he could tell he was the leader of the group.
"Oh, we had a conversation on our way here. Sorry for that."
The individual stared down Evans for what felt like minutes before he turned his attention to Neal. Off the bat, he could tell that he did not like the way he looked at him.
"Neal, this is our leader, Xavier. Xavier, this is Neal," Evans introduced the two in response to the awkward situation that was brewing.
"Hey.." Neal attempted to spark a conversation only to be interrupted.
"What is your Combat class?" Xavier asked out of nowhere.
"Combat class?.." he instinctively questioned as his right palm began to burn.
From Neal's utterance, it was obvious he had no idea what he was talking about. Since the moment he arrived in the tower, Neal could not help but feel that everything that was going on was from some kind of video game. Heck, he still had a hard time believing if any of it was real.
"Xavier, should you really be asking him that question right now?" Evans jumped into the conversation.
Neal's gaze shifted to him before landing on Xavier once again. The hot head had not taken his eyes off him since the question. Naturally in response, he started to fell uncomfortable.
"The earlier we know, the faster we learn of our chances of survival. It is not strange for me to ask him about this in any way."
The conversation was beginning to sound kind of shady to Neal for obvious reasons. They made it seem as if they had been waiting for him as if he was some kind of savior.
The burning feeling on his palm got worse as time progressed; however, he did the best he could to shrug it off. Closing his palm tight, he moved his fingers gently in hopes it would subside the pain. To his greatest surprise, it did as he could feel the pain reduce to a great extent.
"Show me your palm!" Xavier caught Neal's attention with his domineering deep voice.
'Did he notice what I was doing?' Neal thought to himself.
Instinctively, Neal refused to open his palm for anyone to see. For some reason, he felt as if doing so was a bad idea.
"I said open your palm damn it!" He demanded as he struck against the wall behind him.
"Xavier, what the heck are you doing!?" Evans attempted to intervene. This was for naught though, as he refused to acknowledge his presence.
"If you won't do it, I will do it myself."
Walking over to Neal, Xavier looked him in the eyes. This ultimately caused him to tilt his eyes to the side. A powerful urge to flee the scene shot through Neal's body; however, there was nowhere to run to.
Even if he hid somewhere, he would most likely be found. Not to mention the fact that he knew close to nothing about the tower. In his attempt to escape, he could run into something even worse than Xavier.
Upon reaching Neal's right hand, Xavier grabbed it and forced it open. This revealed the X like symbol tattooed on his palm, which was red hot at the moment. As if responding to being seen, the burning stopped and the symbol returned to it's normal dark color. Neal was astonished to see that his fingers had been utterly overpowered with ease.
After what felt like a minute of staring at Neal's palm, a vein appeared on the side of Xavier's head. For some reason, the X like symbol on his palm seemed to annoy him astronomically.
Tossing his hand to the side, Xavier clicked his tongue before storming off to the exit of the room. He came to a sudden halt though, few centimeters from actually leaving the room.
"He is useless to us. Our chances of survival is close to none existent.." a tone of disappointment filled his voice. Something that Neal originally believed was impossible for him. After this, Xavier walked out leaving everyone silent.
At this point, everyones attention drew to Neal's palm, leaving them with the same expression. One by one, everyone left the room, leaving Neal and Evans alone with themselves.
A puzzled expression escaped Neal's face, and rightfully so. 'Why would an X shaped symbol annoy anyone?' He couldn't help but wonder.