29 - Floor of Tests

The two of us appeared in a large open field with very tall wheat, hills, and small cliffs. Various other people and humanoid beings could be seen in the distance.

We were standing on one of the cliffs which gave us a nice view of the surroundings.

"Mic test! Mic Test!"

A golden box was floating high in the air and a loud voice was coming from it. Even higher than that, far in the sky was some kind of floating cylindrical structure that seemed like a station of some kind.

"Hello everyone! All the Regulars who have arrived, we sincerely welcome you to the 2nd Floor, Evankhell's Floor. This is also called the Floor of Tests because here we carry out the final tests to see if you are worthy of going up the Tower! But I can explain all that later. Let's get to the first test! It is very simple, but listen carefully. There are 400 Regulars here. Use whatever means to bring that number down to 200! The test ends when there are only 200 left. Begin!"

"Hmm, getting into it immediately huh?"

I glanced at Rachel, who seemed scared at the news.

"Calm down. You're not going to die," I said. "I'll protect you as I said I would."

She looked at me hesitantly and nodded.

"Raa!" Somebody charged up the hill towards us.

Really? Did this guy not have the sense to realize it was dangerous to attack two combatants on high ground who were obviously in a group rather than alone like the rest? Even if Rachel couldn't help, this guy wouldn't have known that.

I took out a laser gun and shot him for his foolishness.

He fell with a smoking hole in his head.

A little farther away, a humanoid creature seemed spooked by the ease with which I dispatched the first guy and decided to find easier prey.

I shot the thing too.

"Weren't the floors supposed to get harder as we went up? That first one was much harder than this. You don't even need me here," said Derflinger.

"The guy on the mic said it's just the first test of the floor, meaning there's more after. It might get harder," I said, "especially after the weaker competition gets weeded out."

After that, I merely observed the battle royale.

"Look at them. So quick to kill for a vague promise. I wonder, what about you, Rachel? Are you willing to do whatever it takes to reach your own goal? Do you think you have a chance at all, against all these other Regulars?"

"…By myself, no," she said, clenching her hands into fists. As if her previous nerves had been calmed down, she continued in a stronger voice. "I'm just an ordinary person, with no special qualities. I'm not strong, I don't have any special powers or destiny…that's why…I'll do whatever it takes to get to the top. I'll even beg for help if I have to. So please, help me, Mr. Axion."

"Hmm…didn't I already agree to help you? But if you want me to help you beyond this Floor, when my contract with Headon is fulfilled, you'll have to show me that you're worth it."

I shot another few Regulars that got close to us while we were having our conversation.

"I understand," said Rachel.

"But tell me, what is it that you desire? Why do you want to get to the top so much, and risk your life for it? Are you really just looking for your friend that Headon mentioned?"

"No, I…that was a trick! Headon tricked him! I tried to climb the Tower first, and then he followed me even though I told him not to! But then Headon made him believe I already went up, and the idiot took the ball test, even though it was suicide! He only survived because he got help! That stupid rabbit, he's…evil! I thought the Fae were supposed to help guide us! Damn him!" Rachel said angrily.

"So you're not chasing after your friend? You have a goal of your own?"

"I want...to see the stars," said Rachel.

"You've never seen the stars before?" I asked incredulously. "Can't we just wait 'til nighttime to see them? There's a sky right here." I pointed up to the blue sky.

"I don't mean like that…I'm sorry, I can't explain it. And that sky isn't real either, it's artificial. There aren't any stars in the Tower's sky. At night it'll just be a light ball."

"I see." I probably wouldn't get anything more comprehensible out of her regarding her wish, so I turned my attention back to the battle.

Seeing as I was with Rachel, this should mean that Androssi, a Princess of Zahard, was also in this group, if things progressed according to canon.

And that also meant that we needed to somehow bring the number of Regulars down to 3 before the test ended, otherwise canon would go off the rails rendering my foreknowledge useless and we'd be going up with another group of Regulars instead of being sent to join Baam's cohort.

I had no idea how Arkong or whatever his name was and Androssi killed everyone else so fast, so I had come up with something myself. If the test ended at 200 Regulars, then we had to take out the rest of them almost instantaneously before the test administrator could call it off.

The problem was I didn't currently have any massive area of effect attacks. This arena was quite large, so how could I get them all at once?

O O O

[Interlude]

Androssi Zahard was crushing her opponents one after the other, eager to dominate the test the way her predecessors did, and feeling great about her progress.

After racking up over a hundred kills, she was starting to think that she was going to bring the number of Regulars to 200 practically by herself. These Regulars sure were taking their time killing each other.

If the initial 400 had just paired up and defeated one opponent the test would be over already.

So why was this taking so long?

But apparently they were so weak they couldn't even properly eliminate each other.

She'd even found a whole bunch that had weakened each other to the point where they couldn't fight anymore, but just couldn't finish the other off, instead just struggling to move on the ground.

Then, just when she was about to kill the next one, her target suddenly collapsed, unmoving.

She looked around, and something similar was happening all over the place. Everyone just dropped dead or maybe unconscious.

What the heck?

She covered her mouth in case there was some kind of poison in the air, and kept moving.

After half an hour, the intercom came on again. "Huh? What? This can't be right!" the voice said with disbelief. "Uh…well, all the remaining regulars, stop what you're doing! Congratulations to you all! Now begins part 2 of the test."

Androssi sighed in relief, at least she passed. Even though it was strange, whatever that was didn't affect her, or she hadn't been targeted.

"The next goal is to make a buddy. Out of the remaining regulars, you must make 2 of them your buddies! You have five minutes. Take note, you need to be in physical contact with your teammates at the end of five minutes."

"What?!" Androssi exclaimed out loud.

She had to find two people in less than five minutes? But there was nobody around, as far as she could see!

No, the test administrators wouldn't give an impossible task. She just had to find whomever caused this.

She started running as fast as she could across the fields. Even with her physical prowess, this place was big and five minutes would only give her enough time to get from one side to the other.

By the time there was only one minute left, she was starting to get very concerned.

'I can't fail the test in such a stupid way!'

She stopped beside a Regular and checked their life signs. 'Not dead after all.'

She tried to slap them awake. When that didn't work, she punched them. Their head exploded.

Thirty seconds left.

She kicked the ground with rage, sending bits and pieces everywhere.

"SOMEBODY! ANYBODY! APPEAR ALREADY! MY NAME IS ANDROSSI ZAHARD, AND I'M A PRINCESS OF ZAHARD!" She yelled at the top of her voice. "IF I'M ON YOUR TEAM THE TESTS WILL BE A BREEZE! COME ON, TAKE ME!"

Everyone knew that princesses of Zahard were super strong. If she advertised her availability, whoever was left would have to be stupid not to come, right? Even if they had to discard one of their existing teammates, it'd be well worth it to get her on the team! That was what she believed.

Something swooped down from the sky and landed behind her with a large impact.

She turned around and saw a man in golden armour, carrying a blonde girl in one arm.

"Hello, princess. Need a team?" The man said, holding out his free hand. He wore a black visor that covered the eyes, making it difficult to discern his expression.

Androssi leapt forward without wasting any more time and grabbed onto his arm. "Yes! Finally!"

O O O

"Only three people passed the first round?! What kind of test were you running, Quant?" Test Director Yu Han Sung looked in confusion at the test results, questioning his colleague.

Quant, one of the subordinate test administrators, answered sheepishly while rubbing his head. "You know my style…I don't like complicated things so I just had a simple thirty minute free for all survival match, or as long as it took to get down to 200 Regulars."

"So what, you stopped watching the counter?" Yu Han Sung looked unimpressed.

"No, I was watching it carefully! But the numbers suddenly went from over 250 down to 3 within a few seconds! There was no time to call it!"

"Really, that's your excuse? You're telling me over 200 Regulars got eliminated before you could make the announcement?"

"But I'm telling the truth! They were all eliminated just like that!"

"And who are those three? Did a princess of Zahard or Irregular come in?"

"Uh…well…it seems there were both."

"What?! Why didn't you tell me?! And you just carried on with the test with those monsters in it?!"

"I…uh…forgot to check the contestants' information…"

"Are you insane?! Right…Alright…how am I supposed to deal with this? Why did this have to happen when Evankhell is on leave? If Evankhell finds out what happened here…we could be going to the chopping block…" Yu Han Sung put a hand to his head and sighed.

"Ahh! Sorry! What do we do?!" Quant said in a panic.

"You should contemplate the meaning of life and do some good works before you pass on."

"No! I don't want to die yet! Please, Yu Han Sung! I'll fill this room with coffee for you!"

"I guess it can't be helped. I'll find a way out."

"Yes, thank you, I love you, Yu Han Sung!"

"Shut up and get me that coffee!"

Once Yu Han Sung went back to his office by himself.

He silently laid down to think for a moment. Then he smirked devilishly. "Hehehe…I knew I was smart."

O O O

[Kaleidus]

It'd been tight, but I managed to fly around and infect the Regulars with a fast acting but timed virus with paralytic and knockout effects. I had all of the infected Regulars get knocked out at precisely the same time when the virus automatically activated, while paralyzing them to prevent them from finishing each other off before it happened.

I gave Rachel a counter virus while I flew around spreading the Armoriont-produced contagious plague as quickly as I could. By itself, it couldn't spread that quickly through the air, but with my help flying all over the arena, it got the job done.

This sort of thing probably wouldn't work once we climbed even a little higher when people got more natural resistances from Shinsoo, but we were still on the second floor where almost everybody was a noob.

I actually found Androssi early on but I avoided her to prevent an unnecessary fight while I finished dealing with everyone else.

I didn't know if I could even defeat her at this point, and any fight between us would surely delay me, potentially throwing canon off the rails.

To be frank, I didn't understand how Androssi and Arkyong did it in canon, they were strong but to instantaneously take out all the other Regulars? Maybe the test didn't quite work the way the administrator said, and they actually had a minimum survival time even if the number of Regulars went below 200?

Regardless, I couldn't count on it, so here we were.

We'd been teleported to a large hall with white walls, with windows near the ceiling for light. I guessed we were in that floating structure I saw from outside.

"So which one of you did it?" Androssi looked between me and Rachel with a scrutinizing expression.

She had head-length brown hair, very expressive golden eyes, and wore a golden dress to match with a brown vest over top, black leggings, and golden high heels. She actually fought in those high heels too. Like Rachel, Androssi still looked like she was in her late teens at this point, though I knew she was much older than that. Shinsoo did wonders for aging, though people in the Tower also seemed to mature differently, and they took physical appearance as the standard for measuring maturity instead of actual mental age.

"I did," I answered easily. "My name is Axion, nice to meet you, Androssi Zahard."

"Why did you do it? You almost caused us to fail with that stunt! If we couldn't find each other in time…" Androssi said with annoyance.

"Because it looked like you didn't have a team yet, and I wanted you," I said back with a smirk.

She looked flabbergasted at that. "What? So you got rid of everyone else to make sure I couldn't team up with them?"

I nodded.

"…"

She looked me up and down, then smiled beautifully. "I guess I should be flattered you went to all that trouble for little old me. I don't mind teaming up with you if you're strong enough to do that. And you aren't bad looking either…haha. What about her? She must be really strong too if you chose her." Androssi pointed to Rachel, who looked embarrassed.

"Not really, I'm just taking her along as a favor to Headon. He gave me this B-grade pocket for it," I said, before showing Androssi the pocket.

"What?! Headon did? What kind of favoritism is that?" The princess looked at both us and the pocket jealously.

I shrugged. "Oh please. Don't tell me you don't get any perks as a princess?"

Androssi growled back. "For your information, I don't! The other princesses got their 'perks' from their families! Mine had nothing to give, they were hoping I'd be the one to bring them out of the dumps after being chosen as a princess!"

"Huh…really?"

"Yes! You don't know anything, do you? Zahard's princesses don't get any special privileges as Regulars. I started with nothing and fought for everything I have. So now what? Are you regretting taking on this impoverished princess in your team?" She crossed her arms and glared at me.

"Don't jump to conclusions. I didn't know you were a princess until you shouted it out back there. I merely saw the beauty and grace with which you fought and decided I wanted you. That's all," I said.

She raised an eyebrow then smirked. "What a charmer. You know just what to say to a girl. Okay, I'll forgive you," she said, twirling her hair.

Their conversation was stopped by the arrival of a man with short curled blonde hair in a white tuxedo and black bodysuit underneath. Two symmetrical moles were under his eyes.

"Hello there, chosen Regulars. I congratulate you on making it this far. I am Lero Ro, and I will be your test administrator for this part. Now it's probably just a formality at this point, considering how you three were the only survivors from the first portion, but I have to do it regardless. Just so you know, if you can't pass this test, you can't take the next test!"

"So it was really just the three of us…" Androssi murmured to herself.

"Now I will begin the test," Lero Ro said and held out his hands palms forward.

There was a flash of light, then a huge force slammed into me.

I was blown away and crashed onto the ground far away. Even though I was expecting it, I was still surprised by the sheer force behind that push.

When I got up, I saw that the two girls were barely affected by the Shinsoo push, still standing back there where they were and looking confused at me from behind a bluish Shinsoo barrier.

What the hell…weren't all Irregulars supposed to enjoy extreme resistance to Shinsoo? Why was I not included in that?

I guess I should be grateful I could work with Shinsoo at all, and that the water spirits seemed to love it. Still better than being completely shut out from learning the elemental spells in Familiar of Zero.

O O O

A/N: The scene between Yu Han Sung and Quant occurred in canon too, with only very slight differences. I put it in this chapter to show what the actual rules of the survival match were, which weren't really explained well in canon. Arkyung and Androssi didn't kill all the Regulars instantly-they simply killed the rest before the minimum 30 minute timer was up, which Quant failed to mention to Baam's cohort, though it's also possible the tests for the two cohorts were different. The scene is also necessary to establish a few other important facts for readers new to Tower of God, such as Quant and Yu Han Sung being aware of the Irregulars from the onset. So why does MC believe that Rachel's status was never exposed? If you haven't guessed it already, keep reading to find out.

Review responses:

FerunaLutelou: He'll certainly try at some point, though it may prove quite challenging.

Subscribe: She is an Irregular according to SIU, but unusual even for an Irregular, as she wasn't chosen, simply taking the chance to enter when the Tower opened for Baam.

OrigamiGuyII: Glad you liked it. I hope this will bring more attention to Tower of God as well.

superpierce: He certainly will.

Ahmed Maged: He got a nice item and coast on Headon's support, what's not to like? ^_^

DG2: They're likely to continue working together for some time, at least until their interests diverge.

WisdomOfCelestials: There will always be cringe around here to satisfy the itch.

Hainz Leonard Kim: I'm a little surprised that people thought Agate was an engaging character. As a writer, I felt that she was actually quite bland and not really useful aside from comedy relief. But I supposed some comedy here and there is in itself engaging, so I'll try to incorporate more where I can. Derflinger can fill that role now anyway.

twewy7th: For now, it's just a metaphorical comparison. If he ever goes to TES, he might look into it more.