The group walked through the village towards the edge of town. A large, stone, tower-like building crested over the horizon. It was the main attraction to that part of town; bustling with hundreds of strong warriors, it was a big part of the reason Laudmuth was kept safe, according to the locals. Seeing it with his own eyes, Ayron couldn’t help the breathtaking gasp that escaped him. The building was brimming with strong individuals, some of whom were even stronger than instructor Kaysi.

  Feeling his adrenaline pumping again, the foreigner was excited for this new opportunity. The young man has been fighting his entire nineteen years on this planet; to do it for fun instead of survival sounded exhilarating.

  “There it is,” Jak motioned towards the large building. “Raider’s Tower.”

  “How old is the building?” Ayron questioned, noting the antiquated architecture compared to the buildings surrounding it.

  “Pretty old,” Kaysi commented. “It used to be a weapons warehouse for the previous kingdom before one of the founders converted it. The building’s been here at least four centuries, from what I’ve heard through the guild master.” The older man had a glimmer in his eye, almost like he was returning home.

  “They’ll have you sign up first. To get the free lodging, you’ll have to sign up as a guild member, not a daily fighter. After you fill out the necessary paperwork, you’ll be given a strength and Prism test, given your RTG Panel, and they’ll help you sign up for your first battle.”

  “There are fighters that aren’t in the guild?” Ayron inquired.

  Kaysi nodded in agreement. “Tourists love to participate. Instead of turning away the extra income, the guild decided to utilize the extra numbers to give the inexperienced guild members more battles.”

  “So, how does the tower system work?” the foreigner questioned. “I’ve been hearing mentions of tower levels. What do they represent?”

  “It’s the ranking system used in the guild, called tower levels. Once you’re evaluated, you’ll be given a level based on your strength and Prism exam. Towers one and two are reserved for novices and beginners. Tower three grants lodging to guild members who meet participation requirements. Towers four and five are known as the upper guild. Anyone who has access to Enki techniques is automatically put in tower four, as they’re stronger than the beginners, even most intermediate warriors. Finally, the elite tower, or tower six, is reserved for the best and strongest fighters. They get to participate in the national tournament involving all members from every location.” The instructor pulled the door open, gesturing for the crew to file in.

  Ayron’s eyes widened at the sheer size of the inside. From its place on the street, the warehouse didn’t look as expansive. There was registration to the left, and a large meeting area to the other side. Several guild members congregated there near the entrance, eyeing the ones who walked in. A beeping noise perked Ayron’s ears. He turned left, seeing Nikai’s bracelet light up.

  “Ooh!” Jak’s friend grinned.

  “Something happened?” The foreigner inquired.

  “Keni accepted my match! I’ll be fighting in an hour. I’d better get ready.” Nikai waved at the group with a smile. “See ya later!”

  “We’re going to find a match, too. See you later, Ayron!” Jak waved as he followed his friend. Jaysi tailed behind them.

  “Come on,” Kaysi motioned to the registration area. “I’ll help you get set up.”

  The instructor brought Ayron to a series of desks, each with a specific sign behind it: ‘New Entries’, ‘Daily Match’, ‘Guild Members’, and ‘Tournaments’. Currently, no one was at the ‘Tournaments’ desk, a sign hung off the wood: “Sign-ups for next Tournament begin season 28th.”

  Walking to the ‘New Entries’ desk, Ayron observed the man behind the desk. He immediately recognized the older man next to him. “Mr. Kaysi!” He said with a grin. Ayron noted the name tag, Izak. “Did you bring a recruit?”

  “Yep,” the instructor nodded. “He’s good. I can’t wait to see what his test shows. Would you mind if I stood in?”

  “Not a problem,” the young man behind the desk said, handing Ayron a clipboard and a graphite pencil. “Fill this out and bring it back to me. I’m sure Kaysi explained the match rules, so I’ll spare you the speech. Once you bring this back, we’ll give you an RTG Panel, an earnings card, and a handbook. Then you’ll be evaluated for your tower level.”

  "How do I use the earnings card?" Ayron asked.

  "It works like a krediti card." Izak pulled his own card from his wallet. It was black and had a chip on the front. It looked similiar the debiti card he received from GoldHD. "It can be used outside of the tower as well to pay for anything you need."

  “Sounds good,” Ayron nodded before walking to one of the tables, taking a seat. The form looked standard enough. His eyes scanned the address and froze. The young man’s hand froze over the address line.

  As if sensing the young man’s hesitation, Kaysi mumbled. “Put down the tavern’s address: 392 South Melbourne. You’re staying there for the time being after all.”

  “Thanks,” the foreigner nodded, notating the address before he filled out the rest of the form. He stands up and takes it back to the desk.

  “Perfect,” Izak smiled as he copied the file before putting it away. He reached into a drawer behind him, pulling out a small booklet and a black bracelet. “This is your RTG Panel. This bracelet will help you schedule matches, accept jobs from the community board, and even set up different evaluations. You’re permitted three re-evaluations per year to increase your tower level without the use of sparring matches.” The young man behind the desk pulled out a black card, swiping it in a small machine on the desk. Additionally, he showed Ayron how to use the panel, helping him schedule his first evaluation.

  “Now, you wait until your bracelet dings! Then you’ll be escorted to the evaluation area.”

  “Thank you.” Ayron nodded with a friendly grin before he went back to his seat. He began fidgeting with the bracelet, attempting to see what information he could obtain about the other guild members; how strong they were, how many levels there were to Raider’s Tower in total.

  Within moments, the panel vibrated, a small screen projecting from it. “It’s time for your evaluation!” It rang.

  Ayron stood up with Kaysi, who led the way to the evaluation rooms. A man with red hair, whose name tag said Garion, waved at the instructor.

  “Kaysi! Long time, no see.” Garion waved.

  “Good to see you,” the older man smiled as he nodded in his direction.

  “You must be,” the evaluator said, looking at his clipboard. “Ayron?”

  “That’s me,” the foreigner nodded.

  The three made their way into the furthest exam room on the left. Inside was a machine resembling a punching bag with an electronic meter, along with a crystal prism on the other side.

  “First, we’ll do the strength test,” the examiner gestured towards the machine on the right. “You’re allowed three tries. Hit the bag as hard as you can. The three scores will be averaged to create your base attack level. Proceed whenever you’re ready,” Garion concluded as he stood to the side, next to Kaysi.

  Ayron wasn’t sure how much force this machine could take. Not that he’s the strongest man in the world, but he’s broken several objects due to his brute strength, most times when he’s not thinking about it. The young man was a creature of habit; he used his hip for torque, cocking his shoulder back before smacking the punching bag. It flew backwards into the metal cage as he expected.

  The numerical gauge beeped before displaying a reading: 1993.

  “What?! That’s… impossible!” The clipboard slipped from the examiner’s sweat-slicked fingers, clattering onto the rough wooden floorboards with a jarring thud. His face, usually a mask of weary detachment, was contorted in a mixture of profound shock and utter disbelief. “Where did you find your recruit, Kaysi?”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Kaysi let out a slow, satisfied chuckle. “He just walked into the tavern yesterday with the kiddos. They met him at the Sunstone festival. The kid needed a way to make some money, and I thought he’d be a perfect fit here.”

  Garion rubbed the stubble on his chin. His gaze locked on Ayron, who stood before the punching machine as if he’d just asked it for the time. The raw power Ayron had just displayed, a force that had nearly ripped the bag off its mountings, was something Garion had only seen from seasoned, high-level Raiders.

  Ayron, meanwhile, felt a faint prickle of unease. He watched the two men exchange their stunned, wide-eyed glances and realized he might have overdone it. He’d intended to impress, not to cause a spectacle.‘Note to self: Dial it back, ’ he thought, adjusting his stance.

  For his second attempt, Ayron deliberately didn’t coil his hips, didn’t root his feet into the ground for purchase, and focused the strike purely from the core and shoulder. It was a partial, almost lazy effort designed to appear powerful, but believably so, for someone of his purported novice status.

  “Maybe the last number was a fluke,” Garion muttered as he notated the result, awaiting the second attempt. “Do all of your patrons have elite-tower strength?”

  Kaysi chuckled. “There are a lot of wild cards that walk in.”

  Ayron punched the bag once more. The machine registered the blow with a less violent jolt, and the display flashed a more palatable, yet still highly respectable score of 1049. He met Kaysi’s eyes. His instructor offered a subtle, knowing smile, indicating that, this time, he’d played the role perfectly.

  “Hm,” Garion’s eyebrows twitched before notating the score.

  ‘Let’s try for somewhere in the middle,’ Ayron stretched before giving the bag one final hit. The score read: 1372.

  “Alright,” the examiner grinned, a hint of professional amusement in his voice. “Now it’s time for the Prism test.” He gestured towards a multifaceted, hexagonal prism-shaped crystal. It rested on a pedestal at the opposite end of the sterile, white-walled room. Ayron’s eyes widened, momentarily stunned by it, as it seemed to drink in the ambient light.

  “Place your hand on top of the prism,” Garion, the examiner, instructed. “This prism will portray the unique energetic signature of Enki. If you’ve accessed any enki techniques, the hues of your ki, which are intrinsically tied to your emotional and energetic state, will shine through the prism and be projected onto the white walls around us.”

  “Sounds easy enough,” the foreigner replied, stepping forward with an easy confidence that shadowed any inner nervousness. He walked up to the crystal and, without hesitation, placed his hand flat against the cool, smooth surface. The air in the room grew instantly still as both Garion and Kaysi watched with keen interest.

  To the complete surprise of everyone in the room, absolutely nothing happened. No traces of color, no light, no energy discharge whatsoever were emanating from the crystal. Ayron, however, felt a strange, internal shift. 'Did the room just get brighter?' he wondered, blinking rapidly. 'I'm starting to get a headache... maybe it's just the stress.'

  “Huh,” Garion raised a meticulously groomed brow, a flicker of confusion crossing his face before he quickly masked it. The examiner notated the result with an almost reluctant flourish. “Strange,” he muttered, more to himself than to the others.

  “Are you sure?” Kaysi leaned in, reading the sterile, colorless results displayed on Garion’s screen over the examiner’s shoulder. His smile had tightened into a perplexed line. “He completed a divination exam at the tavern just yesterday. I know it’s a passive exam, but the results were undeniable. I’m almost positive he’s an —.”

  Garion shrugged, cutting off the older man with a wave of his hand. “The divination test is a preliminary screening, Kaysi. It's often inconclusive, relying on circumstantial energetic residue. The Prism Test is the absolute standard. If there’s no emotional marker, which is what the color represents, then we simply don’t have a way to officially prove his access to Enki techniques according to the Tower’s protocols. He’s a special case, indeed. Director, His results are… unprecedented.” Garion closed his tablet with a decisive snap, signaling the end of the examination. He gestured the men towards the exit. “I’ll need to confer with the other examiner and the tower director on how exactly to proceed. We’ll go over your existing results and update your RTG Panel—your Raider’s Tower Guild Panel. As soon as we’ve given you a tower placement, we’ll summon you.”

  “Sounds good,” Ayron nodded, turning towards his instructor, sensing the underlying tension but remaining outwardly calm.

  “We’ll head back to the main waiting room,” Kaysi assured him. His voice was calm, but his eyes were darting back to the massive, unlit crystal. “This shouldn’t take them long; they just need to figure out the proper bureaucratic loophole for this situation.”

  Minutes quickly turned to a grinding half-hour, then to a full hour, causing Ayron to shift restlessly in his chair and wonder what exactly was taking them so long. The silence of the waiting area, punctuated only by the hushed whispers of other applicants, felt increasingly heavy. After nearly two hours, Ayron noticed his instructor stiffen almost imperceptibly next to him, the slight tensing of his jaw the only outward sign. This caused the foreigner’s sharp eyes to peer into the dense crowd of applicants milling about.

  “Something wrong?” Ayron murmured, leaning closer.

  “The tower director is coming this way,” Kaysi muttered under his breath, quickly standing up with a practiced, respectful posture. A broad, professional smile was instantly plastered onto his features. “Director Vanya! It’s been ages.”

  “Kaysi.” The Director’s voice was crisp and commanding, a tone that cut through the low hum of the guild hall. “Let’s go to an empty room and talk.

  “We can talk here. I have nothing to hide.” Ayron tried his best to assess the situation. “What’s going on?”

  “Well,” the tower director sighed. “We have a bit of a problem.”

  “Problem?” The foreigner’s eyebrows furrowed in curiosity.

  The director nodded. “Your physical exam places you in Tower Five, right below the elite tower. However, since there was no definitive reading from the prism test, our examiners state you don’t have access to Enki techniques; hence, the problem we’ve found ourselves in.”

  “Why is this a problem?” Ayron inquired.

  "To guarantee a fair match, fighters are categorized into levels 1 through 325. These levels correspond to the six tower levels. The lower tower levels contain beginner and intermediate fighters, none of whom, like you, utilize Enki. The Enki warriors reside in the upper levels." The director paused, searching for the right words for the next explanation.

  "The difficulty lies in arranging your initial fight. Clearly, the lower-level fighters wouldn't be a challenge; it’d be impossible to find a willing participant once they saw your attack power. However, your lack of enki puts you at a significant disadvantage against those in the upper levels. You could get seriously injured, and I’m not willing to take that risk."

  “What if I am?” The foreigner merely offered a casual, almost challenging shrug. “At least give me a chance to prove my worth?”

  The Director ran a weary hand over his short, graying hair. His gaze, a mix of skepticism and grudging curiosity, flicked towards the previous Level 326 instructor, a man named Kaysi, who stood next to Ayron. “Kaysi, what do you think? You were the one tasked with his… ‘initial assessment’. Have you seen him spar, truly seen him in action?”

  “We had a spar near the tavern this morning, director. None of my kiddos were willing, so I took him on myself. ” He hesitated for a fraction of a second before delivering his core evaluation, his voice dropping to a serious tone. “He’d compete, and likely dominate, in the upper tiers of the Tower, level 200 and above, easily. You’re asking for administrative and disciplinary problems if you attempt to pigeonhole him into a low-level tower. It’s a waste of his ability and, frankly, a massive psychological risk for the lower-tier members who might be pitted against him.”

  Kaysi gave the director a serious look. “I think we should convene the special panel. We could be dealing with one end of the spectrum, or the other.”

  Director Vanya clicked his tongue, a soft, rhythmic sound of deep irritation as he digested the predicament. The potential liability and undeniable talent were a massive administrative headache. “It’s a significant liability to the entire guild to match him with any single, fixed opponent at a lower level. We can’t have him shattering the confidence, or worse, the bodies, of our recruits.” He paused, his mind working through the regulations. “Here’s the compromise. We will process his membership as a probationary, unranked ‘challenger’. We can put his name and a summary of Kaysi’s assessment into the ‘daily challenge pool.’ Anyone who feels they are up to the task can select him for a battle through their RTG Panel.”

  "Perhaps we should get Eli's input," Kaysi suggested. “He’s seen just about everything when it comes to prism exams. He could have an explanation.”

  "No, absolutely not," the director quickly cut in, dismissing the suggestion. "The guild master has more pressing concerns to attend to."

  Kaysi’s brow furrowed, a genuine expression of confusion replacing his professional mask. The Challenger status was almost unheard of. “Would he still be considered a fully-fledged member of the guild, entitled to the usual resources, training, and stipends?”

  “Of course,” the Director affirmed, nodding sharply. “He’ll be on the roster, granted full access to the facilities. However, I’m not entirely sure you, ‘challenger’,” he said, turning his sharp gaze back to the foreigner, “will receive a match today. The pool is public and available to all guild members, but the fear of being steamrolled tends to keep the roster sparse for unranked threats.”

  “I guess I’ll take it.” Ayron nodded. “Put me in as a ‘challenger’.”

  “Good.” The director grinned, pressing a few places on the tablet. “You are more than welcome to visit the training rooms. Take the floor, display your unique… skills. Someone seeing your combat prowess in person might be reckless or ambitious enough to offer you a battle. That’s your fastest route to a ranked match.” He nodded before turning on his heel and walking away from the group.