"Ok, well, since you three have all made it, I'll leave you to talk, and I will come back when it's time for you to leave," Zyra said as she walked away, going to do whatever it was she needed to do.
Xander just kind of stood there awkwardly among Laura and Leo for a moment before Leo finally said, "So, Xander, you didn't want to join the council either?"
Xander, who was looking at the ground in thought, looked up and made eye contact with Leo as he answered while shaking his head no, "Nope, I grew up not too fond of them, so I think I'll pass on joining them, at least for now until I can get some more information."
"Same," Leo said with a small nod.
"So what about William and Noah? Did they decide to join the council's academy?" Xander asked.
He immediately noticed the odd look on Leo's face as Laura looked up and answered for Leo, "They unfortunately didn't make it past their trial."
"Oh… ok, I see…" Xander said as he realized that the fact that three out of five surviving the trial was considered pretty good.
"So do you guys think you will join an academy once you enter the 1st floor?" Xander asked, wanting to get the thought process of someone else.
Leo was the first to answer, "Yeah, I think I will if I can. What about you, Laura?"
Laura paused in thought for a moment and just when Xander thought she would ignore the question, she finally said, "Probably, but I don't know, depends on how good the school is. I already got a decent education in Division 97. Also, we aren't going to the 1st floor."
'We're not going to the 1st floor? Then where are we going?' Xander wondered.
"What do you mean?" Leo asked, just before Xander.
"I figured everyone knew this, but the 1st floor is a trial floor that only G-ranks go to when they're ready to start leveling up toward F-rank. We, like everyone else, will be randomly teleported to the 4th floor, which is its own universe called the 1st Universe. The 1st Universe is where dormants, G-ranks, F-ranks, and E-ranks live while they're not on the trial floors," Laura explained.
"Oh, ok, that makes sense, I guess," Xander said.
"What about…" Before Xander could ask anything else, Zyra came back over and interrupted him.
"Alright guys, it's time to go. I'll wish you all good luck," she said with a huge smile. She seemed to be a genuinely nice person.
Xander and the other people that would be entering the tower, which was a bunch of kids around Xander's age that he recognized from the time he took the serum, and a few adults who looked like veterans of the tower, were all led into a large room that had a large pillar that was glowing a bright white.
"Ok, here is the teleporter. When it's your turn, you just walk up to it and place your hand on it. After a moment, you will be teleported to the tower," Zyra said.
"Phew." Xander let out a breath.
'Alright, it's time. You can do this,' Xander began to pump himself up. He knew that the moment he was teleported into the tower, there was a large chance he would be in a dangerous area.
After waiting in line for about 10 minutes, it was finally about to be Xander's turn.
He waited behind Laura and Leo, who each nervously walked up to the pillar and placed their hands on it. Then, after a moment, like Zyra had explained, the pillar's light flashed, and they were gone.
"Ok, Xander, it's your turn," Zyra said. She had stood next to the three the entire time, trying to bring them some form of comfort.
Xander nodded his head.
'I have to do this. I have to get strong enough to go find Austin,' Xander told himself.
Then, without giving it a second thought, he placed his hand on the teleporter.
[Would you like to teleport to the 1st Universe of the 536th Tower of Fate in the Celestial Realm?]
'There's that many towers?' Xander thought, not expecting that at all. For the longest time, he only thought there was one, but then his brother brought up the idea that there might be more. But there were now at least 536 towers. The thought of that was just crazy. How big was this world he found himself in?
After getting that thought out of his head, he mentally thought 'yes,' and then the light flashed, and he felt a pull on his body, and everything went dark.
When Xander's senses came back to him, he realized he was in a jungle that was covered in massive towering trees.
All around him were shrubs, bushes, vines, large leaf plants, and trees so wide it would take five of him to wrap fully around it.
'Dammit, I can't see shit,' Xander thought. His sight was blocked, so he had no clue where he was, and his hearing was being barraged by all sorts of noises, from bugs to birds to the sound of rushing water.
'Ok, I need to figure out where I am,' Xander, after noticing he wasn't in immediate danger, started to climb one of the tall trees next to him, hoping he could get to the top and figure out a direction he could go.
He slowly climbed the tree, using both vines and branches as holds, and after a long hour, he finally reached the top. Well, he at least reached as high as he was willing to climb.
He looked all around him and realized that he seemed to be in a large valley with mountains all around him.
To his back was a large rushing river that he had no thoughts of trying to cross, and to his front left, he saw what looked like to be an exit out of the valley. It was a small dip in the mountain that looked like it would be the easiest place to cross.
So he climbed back down the tree much faster than he climbed up and set off toward that direction with his spear in hand.