"HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARDEN!" Glacies stood in front of Arden with a meat pie pierced by 15 flaming wooden skewers to symbolise candles.
Arden masterfully raised his hand and used his water magic to extinguish the flames.
"It's finally time." Arden's eyes looked serene and still, like the surface of a calm lake. Arden's appearance changed a lot during the past years. He was wearing light clothes under a robe that hid them, even then, a sword peaked from his waist. His body grew taller and stronger, his muscles being more defined. Even so Glacies dwarfed little Arden.
The day Arden had been working for, the day he sharpened his sword and magic for, the day he finally enters The Tower, has come.
"Yep, you are ready to start climbing the Tower, you've worked hard, I'm proud to have had you as a student, Ah! Before you go! I've prepared a gift for you.."
Without missing a beat Glacies started rummaging through his bag.
"This will surely come to use in the future, so be sure to keep good care of it!"
'A gift? He has already given me so much yet he still thinks of me. Thank you Glacies.'
Arden was thankful for everything Glacies had done for him. He held a deep respect for the man.
"I had acquired an item some time in my youth from the tower, it's a type of mask, it can hide your identity as well as presence to a certain degree. Thanks to this presence hiding ability I could hide it from the inspectors, so I was able to keep it!"
Had the inspectors known of Glacies had acquired such an item, they would have taken it away as "Tax" in order to resell it to the populace if it wasn't of much value to the governing body in itself.
"Here it is!" Glacies eyes softened looking at the mask, it seems as if he'd remembered something from the past.
Glacies handed over the mask to Arden.
'Tax evasion! If he had gotten caught it would have been really bad... But nevertheless this is perfect! In case the Tower makes me fight a team battle involuntarily I'll be able to hide my identity in case I need to use my Green Magic'
It was a black domino mask, it covered the places around the eyes.
Arden tried on the mask, and his turquoise hair and light blue eyes changed colour to a dark Green. His facial features were distorted so outsiders couldn't recognise him.
"This is perfect! Glacies you are amazing! Thank you!"
Glacies looked upon Arden with pride, he had truly progressed a lot from what he was before.
"Well, you'd better be off, I'll be waiting for you at the Orphanage" The pale Glacies bid Arden farewell for now.
"Indeed, I'll see you back at the orphanage. Though who knows when that will be."
Arden was reluctant to leave, not knowing when he would be able to return, but he steeled himself.
Seeing Arden reluctant, Glacies patted him on the back
"Don't worry, you are ready. Have faith in your abilities, I assure you as I've been to the Tower myself."
Arden nodded
"You are right, thank you for everything Glacies.
And with that, Arden started heading for The Tower.
(City centre, The Tower)
The Tower, it was stationed in the middle of Iudicium. It reached towards the sky as if it was trying to pierce the heavens. It's black frame was partly blocked by clouds.
Arden looked around, the air smelling of many different spices and foods, and the crowds chattering could be a little overbearing.
"Over here! Over here! We have the best potions around!"
"One steamed bun for 5 copper only! Take it while it's hot!"
Of course, city guards were here too, but Arden decided to ignore them and suppress his killing intent. It was no yet time.
The city centre was lively, with stalls for anything you could imagine.
Arden's Gaze fell upon an odd stall as he was passing by.
"Come sir! We have the best Vials of God's Grace here! Best of all, at a good price!"
Arden peered into the stall.
'God's Grace huh? With that I could challenge trials made by specific Gods without needing to have an affinity for their floor trial... But from what I see, these ones are from minor gods.. junk'
"Make way! Make way! The Roland party is coming through!"
A famous party had arrived at the city square in order to venture into the tower, of course, making a dramatic entrance for fun.
Hearing the small commotion, he took a few steps away from the stall.
'A party huh? In the latter floors you may choose to fight along with comrades or without(except for special stages that don't let you choose), of course traversing the tower alone is much harder than with others, but it may yield more rewards...'
Arden ignored them. He had no need of distractions like them, after all his goal for now was venturing into the Tower.
"Progress outside of the tower is limited, my body may have gotten stronger, but my biggest gain of my training is my comprehension of magic and swordsmanship."
Arden being able to understand magic theory a little bit better will help him a lot in concurring the tower and understanding any magic that he may encounter inside the Tower.
His understanding wasn't high at all but the higher the better his chances are at understanding new magic the tower might throw at him.
As for his weapon art his sword skills where trained at a basic level not too high and not too low he had the basics sword techniques down.
After walking for a bit more, he had finally reached it.
Arden stared at the tower solemnly for a minute.
It had a looming presence as it stretched to the sky and beyond, making one feel insignificant compared to it. The tower had a large entrance, like the entrances of a castle just without a door, though in its place a mysterious magic barrier existed so that you couldn't see the inside of the entrance. Many people were coming in and out, some of the people coming out were injured but that was the norm. Many were stopped by city guards because they detected magic items on them, had these items come from the Tower, they'd be confiscated as a form of tax in order to be re-sold back to the Crawlers. Of course they were awarded with points, using their Crawler cards to store the points.
The cards were a system created by the government, a ranking and prestige system, at the start you had a bronze card, but later advanced to silver, gold and so on using the point system. Of course you could use the points to buy items as well... But you needed a lot.
Arden decided to ignored them and Focus on the tower.
~Budump~
Arden's heart thundered once.
"No, I won't let past events get to me now, it's been so long. "
Arden shook his head, and finally stepped inside the Tower, with a blink, the sounds around him had stopped and the people had disappeared, as if they never were there to begin with, he was alone.
Taking a look around he noticed that he was in a round room with a weird obelisk in the middle.
"Floor zero, it's exactly like what Glacies told me about..."
Floor zero was a trial like all the others but it held is significant meaning, it was a floor before the starting point, it's purpose to gauge the challengers power.
"If I do well here, my journey in the tower will be a little bit easier. Not only will God's want to give me harder trials with higher rewards, I will also get a suitable reward from this trial."
Arden stepped in front of the obelisk and placed his hand upon its obsidian looking frame.
Soon after light blue coloured words started appearing on the obelisk.
[Trial of Sword]
[Trial of Magic]
"Hahahaha!" Arden couldn't help but laugh after seeing the light words. Usually if one hadn't been trained in a weapon of their choice, it is said that instead of a trail for a specialised weapon like the [Trial of sword], it would give out a [Trial of arms] and the challenger would be given a weapon of their choice and take the trial like that.
'seeing something like this means that I'm at the very least acknowledged as a swordsman by the Tower, i wonder how that qualification is given, now then...'
Arden kept looking at the words on the obelisk.
'Sword or magic huh? Well if you asked anybody else around me they would tell me to pick the trial of sword without skipping a beat. But they do not know about my Green magic, thus, with only Blue magic to work with, taking the magic trial would be pointless, seeing how water magic is the lowest valued magic...'
After pondering for a bit, Arden came to a conclusion.
'What if I want to take both trials? Sure I've trained more in the art of Sword rather than magic but my Green magic isn't something to scoff at. Let me see...'
Arden thought for a second and came to a Great conclusion,
"What if I press both at once!"
He then pressed the square of [Trial of Sword] with his thumb while simultaneously pressing the [Trial of Magic] with his pointer finger at the same time.
Suddenly the obelisk started disappearing into particles and a small arena appeared in front of Arden along with [Trial of Sword] reverberating in his head.
'Bummer, oh well, it was worth a shot.'
This was the [Trial of Sword]
".!! My magic is sealed! Oh wait that's normal."
Arden got surprised but it was normal for a trial of the sword to limit his magic, as it was gauging his comprehension of the sword and his strength with it.
Arden then reached for his sword but..
'Of course it's not here.'
That had been taken from him as well, Thankfully, as he approached the Arena a wind suddenly blew in front of him and swiftly dissipated leaving behind a sword floating mid-air face to face with Arden.
"Just a Mortal tier sword, well, not like my sword is any better.."
Arden grabbed the sword handed to him and a blue Translucent male figure holding a sword appeared at the opposite side of the arena.
Arden took a sword stance, adopting a serious look. Preparing for a serious challenge, his heart rate started rising.
The figure charged at Arden in an clumsy way.
Arden stepped forward towards the figure, the grip on his sword getting tighter and before it could react, he beheaded it with a horizontal strike.
'This can't be all the trail has to offer.'
Arden then went back to his side of the arena and another figure started appearing.
'Again with this?' Arden, thinking the same opponent was brought out for a second time, felt a little disappointed.
He went in for the kill once more, but then the figure suddenly blocked his strike.
'What!?' Arden felt his body hair rise, the sudden ability increase of the puppet gave him goose bumps.
He swung his sword diagonally for a second time, this time aiming to disarm the figure.
~clunc~
In succeeding, he struck for a third time and beheaded the figure.
But even then, the translucent figure couldn't beat Arden.
Soon after another figure started appearing
"So that's how it is."
Arden noticed the changes happening to the translucent figure, now with more of its features comprehensible.
It was then that Arden understood the way this trial would progress.
'Every time I defeat it, it gets more and more corporeal, indicating it's increase in strength.'
His heart started beating faster.
"So this is the [Trial of Sword]... interesting!"
Arden's eyes lit up, getting more excited as another figure started materialising.
Chaper end.