[Third Person POV]
A tall man walked through the hall of a quiet house quickly. He had an urgency in his steps that made his coat flutter behind him and there was a frown on his face. He reached a door and knocked on it twice.
"Dante," the man said gravely, "We have a problem."
"Speak," Dante responded without bothering to open the door to let the man in.
"It seems that one of the mines on the first floor was compromised," he reported, "There were signs of battle, as well as looting, so we concluded that it must've been bandits that caused it."
"And the children?" Dante asked after a few quiet seconds, and when the man didn't say anything for some time, Dante spoke again, "Find me those children,"
"But what of the mines?" The man asked, "Do we reuse it or do we dispose of it and call it an accident?"
"The mines are not as important to me as those children," Dante said, "They are my babies and no one takes my babes from me and lives to tell the tale." Dante's voice lowered dangerously, "Do whatever you think is best with the mines, but find the culprits before that and measure their threat level. If they are too strong for us to handle, then inform the mercenary group on floor five and they will handle it. I want those children back."
"Yes, Dante," the man bowed respectfully before turning to leave.
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[Jason POV]
I woke early the next morning and I heard a moan from beside me. It was Yuvan and I smiled at her sleeping face before I got up to get my things. I put on my trousers, my boots, and my shirt, and I was putting on my gauntlets when I heard her speak behind me.
"You weren't even going to say goodbye?" she said and I turned around with a raised brow, "And here I thought we had something special."
I smiled at her before bending down to kiss her, "I wasn't leaving without saying goodbye," I said as I stroked her head, "I had fun last night."
"I still can't believe I'm here," Yuvan said with a sigh and she kissed me one more time and tapped my cheek, "Alright," she finally said, "Get out of here. And, I hope I don't have to tell you to keep quiet about this. I trust you, but I still can't help but worry that you are a kid sometimes."
I grinned at her softly and stood to grab my sword, Yuvan still didn't know anything about me, so I didn't blame her for thinking I was just a kid. I wasn't going to tell her or anyone else about my return to the past since that was my most important weapon right now, "I'll see you around, Yuvan," I said, and Yuvan smiled at me in a way that would capture any man's heart. She was truly beautiful, but it was too bad that I wasn't interested in relationships right now.
I made my way out of the room and the guild house and I traveled through the town till I got to the [Transporter] close to the edge of the town. the [Transporter] was the only way to travel from one floor to another in the tower. It was protected by SSS rank magic that no one has been able to decipher in the entire time that the tower existed and it was practically indestructible.
There were other people also traveling to other floors and so I waited in line for my turn before I entered the [Transporter] and said, "Fourth floor."
"Transporting to the fourth floor," a female mechanical voice spoke back to me before I vanished from the first floor and landed on the fourth floor. I walked out from the [Transporter] on the fourth floor so that the next person coming through won't run into me and I made my way through the market.
The fourth floor was completely different from the first floor. Instead of small houses on the street, the fourth floor was like a conglomerate of sky scrapers with businessmen walking around in crisp vests and Capri trousers. I looked very out of place in my adventurer's outfit, but I didn't let that affect me as I started making my way toward the guild house.
The reason the fourth floor was so advanced is that it is the floor where one of the four great families placed their headquarters. The tower had three main powers that were always in a strange tug of war with each other. The families, the guilds, and the church. On the surface, these three powers seemed to be working together to make the tower better, but that couldn't be further from the truth. They were always trying to find ways to make themselves more powerful, and even among the families, there were still some families that wanted more power than the other families.
The Gaiaclan family on the fourth floor was one of those families that didn't have any ulterior motives in the tower, they were a very affluential family of Earth mages that were only interested in making money, so when they settled on the fourth floor, they managed to transform this floor into one of the most thriving business ventures in the entire tower. Most of the rankers living here weren't even rankers anymore. They were now businessmen that were part of the Gaiaclan's large network of companies and businesses.
Most of them gave up on ranking because they believe that they will have a better life down here than they would ever have if they went up to a higher floor and started meeting stronger people that could easily kill them. I learned during my last life that the Gaiaclan actually came to this floor on purpose. They wanted to create a monopoly of rankers whose main purpose was only to make money and they knew that the rankers on higher floors are too concerned with gaining power to bother trying to make money. So they came to the lower floors where the rakers still didn't have hope, gave them hope in the form of a lot of money, and then trapped them in a never-ending cycle of business that the rankers could never leave.
I got to the guild and I entered the large skyscraper that was meant to be the guild house. I looked around and I saw only a few adventurers moving around the place. This building was so large but the number of adventurers was so small that you would think there were no adventurers on this floor at all.
"Hello, how can I help you?" a woman walked up to me when she saw me looking around. There was no receptionist desk down here, so I planned to go to a higher floor before she stopped me, "Are you looking for the receptionist?" she asked.
"Yeah," I said, "Do you know the way?"
"Yes, sir, that isn't the direction you're meant to go in," she said while pointing towards the left staircase, "You should follow this staircase. It'll lead you straight to the receptionist."
"Is that so?" I asked curiously and the woman nodded her head quickly, "You're sure you aren't just trying to lead me into a trap where some men will be waiting to steal all my money?"
The smile on the woman's face slowly faded and it was completely dead when I finished talking. She cleared her throat and quickly turned around to leave, "I-I think I hear someone calling me…"
I put my hand on her shoulder, "Why the hurry," I said as I started to lead her toward the stairwell she pointed to. "I'd love to meet this receptionist, so why don't you show me the way?"
"I said someone was calling me!" she exclaimed, "Do you want me to scream that you're forcing me to follow you."
My hand tightened on her shoulder and she flinched as her bones creaked. I knew of these fools because I was scammed by them in my last life. They were members of the underground, a bunch of D and C rankers who were not interested in climbing the tower but also didn't want to work for money, so they scammed businessmen and adventurers to make ends meet. In my last life, I foolishly trusted them since I was so overwhelmed by how large the fourth floor was and I was robbed. I think it's only fair that I return the favor.
"Lead the way unless you want me to kill you right here," I sneered at the woman and she looked at me with fear in her eyes.
"Do you think you can get away with this," She whispered as she started walking, "You'll definitely die at their hands!"
"It will only take me one second to snap your neck. Do you think someone can come to save you in that time?" she shook her head quickly and I nodded, "So shut up," I said.