"Welcome!!!"
My eyes shoot open, darting from side to side as I'm greeted by an unfamiliar room. Said room was lit by torches, letting off minimal, flickering light that illuminated stony walls that seemed to extend to infinity. Finding myself close to a wall, I shake my head as I felt a massive migraine coming on and then stare at the similarly stony floor.
Breathing in slowly, I suddenly whip my head behind me when I hear grumbling. What greeted me was a mass of other sitting people that my eyes couldn't see the end of.
"W-what's goin-" But I feel myself silenced as the voice that originally awoke me made its appearance.
"Well, now that you're all acclimated to your new surroundings, let's get started, shall we?"
In the center of the mountain of people, there stood a lanky giant, clothed in a rather fashionable garb, wearing a skull mask over its face. In its left hand, it held a cane. In its right, it held a book of unreasonable proportions.
"You all may call me Death. I am the guidance counselor of this preparation floor of… The TOWER!!!" Giving an unreasonable amount of pizzaz, Death continued, "Now, many of you may be wondering where you are… Well, little ol' Death here is gonna tell you."
Finding such a massive being putting on a cutesy show was rather disconcerting.
"This is… The TOWER!!! A place where we take being from weak worlds… like yours… and grow them to be strong warriors. And what's the purpose of doing this I hear you ask…" He hops from foot to foot as everyone stays quiet. "For entertainment of course! Hahahaha."
Feeling a shiver run down my back, the being continues with its show.
"Now, the administrators realize how weak you are, so they have decided to grant each and every one of you a talent which should be…" The being looks to the nonexistent ceiling, tapping his foot impatiently, "Appearing now."
As it says that, a screen suddenly pops in front of my face.
"Read this screen carefully because this should be the last time that you see it." The being's voice turns serious, causing the air around me to turn deathly cold, "The administrators blessed you with these talents out of the kindness of their hearts, so do not insult them. They've given you a chance to survive after all."
Death's carefree demeanor quickly returned, letting me release the breath I didn't even know I was holding.
"Now before I release you lot to challenge The TOWER, let me lay down a few rules you must never break… No... Matter… What…" Death claps his hands excitedly, "First, never insult or question the administrators. Second, you must climb The TOWER naturally. Third… have fun. That's all. Any questions?"
As if a dam had broken, voices that had been restrained by an unseen hand were released, causing the voices of who knows how many humans to pour out. All of it sounded like nothing more than a parade of angry shouts, sad cries, and an incomprehensible mesh of dialogue. But that freedom of voice was quickly stripped away from us once again as Death started to laugh.
"Such an uncoordinated bunch you lot are…" Death wipes a tear from his eye, "Since you all seem ready to climb The TOWER, I'll leave you to it." Death waves his hand, "Ta-ta."
In a flash, the giant figure of Death disappeared. With its withdrawal, we were once again granted our freedom to speak. But just like before, it turned into indecipherable garbage that relit the migraine I'd quell. There were those amongst the crowd of people who tried to gain control, but they were very quickly drowned out by the headless crowd.
Shaking my head as I try to ignore that noise, I stare closely at the screen that portrays my talent.
"Eternal Life… huh?"
Not knowing what to make of this talent as it came with no sort of explanation, I scratched my head and watched as it slowly disappeared. Looking around me to try and peek at what others' talents might be, I became disappointed when I noticed no screen visible. And then I proceed to sit there, wondering if I should try to build connections or just wait for something to happen.
And then something did happen… something that caused the entire room to shake, the torches to flicker violently, and the roar of the crowd to die down.
Still blocked by the view of hundreds of heads, I couldn't see anything happening, but that all changed when I noticed a block of the stony wall moving upwards towards the ceiling, revealing a pitch-black corridor. After a time, the wall stopped moving and the shaking stopped. Torches within the pitch-black corridor lit up to reveal a seemingly endless corridor that led to God knows where.
As if giving us one final "helping" hand, it seemed as though Death lowered a neon sign that read, "Start here!" with arrows that point at the opening.
The incessant chatter began once more, but I saw some people start to stand up and move toward the fresh opening. I watch as they walk into the corridor, their heads bobbing up and down, before disappearing.
Befuddled by their disappearance, I can't help but stand up and try to make my way over the entrance.
As I stand, I take one final look at the crowd and nearly choke on my own saliva at what I see. It wasn't just hundreds of people like I previously thought… it's more like millions.
Facing forwards once more as I try to comprehend the sheer scale of it all, I steadily move along the outside edge of the wall, navigating my way around people who were crying, screaming, and shouting, just so I could get a peek at what was down the corridor. As I carefully maneuver myself, I nearly topple over when a person throws themselves at me.
Clawing at my shirt as they fail to get a proper foothold, I find myself greeted by the woeful face of a middle-aged man.
"This can't be real… right?"
Calmly tearing his hands off me, I gently put him back on the ground as he repeats the question.
"I don't know."
Patting the man a few times on the back, I stand and proceed on my journey to the entrance. As I walk, I feel stabs of guilt at my inability to do anything for those in anguish.
'But what is there I can do?' I can't help but ask myself.
Finally, after what felt like ages, I reach the corridor… only to find that it wasn't a corridor but a stairway. Staring down the steps, my eyes land on a door at the bottom.
Staring back at the anarchical mass, I steel myself and start down the steps. As I proceeded further and further down, the door that I had previously thought to be human-sized was ginormous.
'Where does this door lead?' I ask myself. 'Well, only one way to find out.'
Gripping the bar situated at the bottom of the door, I pull just enough before slipping in.
Feeling a wave of nausea hit, I try to retain my vomit but fail in doing so.
After puking on the ground, I start to survey my new surroundings through tear-stricken eyes. Rather than the glum, despairing surroundings of where I once was, I was greeted by a lush forest. The sun stood over my head, the sounds of insects rang in my ears, and a gentle breeze rolled over my skin. Yet rather than feeling comforted by these familiar sensations, it left me with an eerie feeling.
Just then, a screen appeared in front of my eyes, causing me to jump slightly.
"Choose a weapon?"
After reading the words on the screen, it refreshed and revealed a set of weapons.
"Sword, dagger, bow, staff, spear, shield, and axe…" I read out the options to myself.
"Well, a dagger's almost like a kitchen knife, right? I'd be able to use it well." I trick myself into believing that. "So, let's go with a dagger."
Refreshing once more, the screen now read, "Good luck…"
Slowly dissipating, my attention's grabbed by a dagger that suddenly falls from the sky, landing before me. Plucking it from the ground, I examine the dagger in a leather sheath and remove it to reveal a gleaming blade. Placing it back in the sheath, I wonder what the tower would want me to do with this dagger.
The answer soon comes as I'm frozen in place when I hear growling behind me. Gradually turning, I'm greeted by what I'll simply describe as a monster. Its height barely reaches my knee; Its skin's leathery and tan; Its eyes shifty and a putrid yellow. Dressed in nothing more than a simple, stained garb and holding a knife of its own, the monster let out a garbled cry. Rushing forward chaotically, the monster soon jumps at me.
And I… jump away.
Scrambling away from the monster, my breathing turns erratic, and my body doesn't listen to me.
"Wha-what am I supposed to do?!" I scream out.
To guide me, the screen appears once more and reads one simple word, "Kill."
With my eyes growing like saucers, I stared past the screen at the approaching monster and let out a scream.
Trying to scramble away, I scream, "I've never killed anything before… I don't want to kill anything… Why… Why must I-" I wanted to continue crying out, but upon staring back at the approaching monster, I'm instead greeted by an eyeful of cold iron.
Feeling the knife slowly, painfully enter my right eye, I start to wail. Never in my easy-going, uneventful life have I ever felt something so painful before. And because of such a new, frightening experience, I didn't know what to do.
I tried to rip the monster from my body, but he clung to me, clawing at my skin, and licking the blood that drips from my now-stabbed eye. It was only after the knife came free from my eye that the monster was thrown away.
Giggling happily while licking the blood from its knife, the monster watched as I feebly tried to remove the dagger, which had miraculously not fallen from my grip, from its sheath.
Deciding that it had played with me enough, the monster leap forward. Yet, in a stroke of luck, I rip the dagger free and hold it out in front of me. Feeling something plant itself into my dagger, I look through my watering eye to find that the monster had run headfirst into my dagger.
The monster showed some final signs of struggle before slumping and slipping from the end of my dagger. Staring at the now lifeless body of the monster, fresh tears spring from my eyes.
"I'm sorry… I'm sorry…" I sniffle, "I-I didn't mean to kill anything…"
Sitting there for who knows how long, I continue to cry out in pain, shout apologies, and suffer alone. Eventually, I ran out of tears to spill, and I'm left with an excruciatingly painful feeling in my right eye.
Spitting out a mouthful of eye blood, I wiped my teary left eye and found another stairway presented before me. Yet, unlike before, where the stairs went down, this stairway extended into the heavens.
My eyes fell from the stairs and onto the dead body of the monster. I tried to rationalize the killing to myself, but all I was left with was a lingering feeling of disgust. Killing didn't feel good. And if I had to guess, the rest of this tower was going to be the same way.
Weighing the options, I decided that I'd rather live a monster killer than die a meaningless death. I had to kill to survive, but that didn't mean I had to enjoy it.
So, I took with me the feeling of disgust and carried it with me up the stairs. Reaching the top, I stared back down at the corpse of the monster and then walked through the door.