“I am the Guardian of the First Floor, tell me what do you seek.”

“ To become the greatest doctor.”

“Your skills & resolve will be put to the test.”

Taril found himself surrounded by a circular stretch of grey walls. That test was a bit unexpected for the village doctor. No exit…? He frowned, it doesn’t look like something he could dig up using his scalpel. He rested his pale fingertips on the surface of the wall. It felt solid, but its just like a few times during a surgery: It wasn’t a living thing but something about this wall felt… incomplete… ?

Tracing his hands on another stretch, he tapped the dull edge of the scalpel on the wall surface. A hollow sound. With one kick the wall gave way, then blue light surrounded.

---

2F - Floor of Tests

Where am I now…? Taril squinted at the sudden brightness of the place he was transported to. “Four Hundred to two hundred...” The wind carried a sense of unease, along with the stench of blood that he was ever familiar with. For most of the test, Taril scoured along good hiding spots. It was until then there was a second announcement, and he had to find a team here.

Emerging from the tall meadows, Taril found himself in front of two regulars, who seemed to be in their 'less-than-pristine' state, the blue haired guy especially. Both of them seem strong... It was the only two regulars that he come across, and there aren't any more time to find another group.

Taking a deep breath, Taril asked, "I'm looking for a team, would it be okay if I were to join in?"
@SilverPaw@King Cosmos

"Your not as ladylike as I expected. But don't dis the ears or else I'll have to establish the pack order." Nikola smiled at her with a fanged grin. The pocket floating around suddenly announcing the test over.

"All right regulars the herd has been thinned next test is to team up! But be careful you only have five minutes to team up and they must be teams of threes!"

Nikola looked toward the direction Runa pointed towards. He could already smell the odor of the person from his position.

'Dirt. Sweat. Fear. Adrenaline. Man, this guy smells weak as hell. But at the very least I'm paired up with the witch.'

Nikola scrunched up his nose as he walked toward the hiding fellow his arm darting out grabbing the young man. Nikola simply lifted the boy by the scruff of his neck, easily carrying the young man with one arm. The boy while dirty and heavily sweating was clearly still alive and passable enough to be used as bait.

"Hey there partner! We just kinda need you to fill in the numbers right now so kindly don't flap your lips while we do stuff capiche?"

Just a few more minutes then this would be all over. He will be disqualified and back at the farm shortly. Already the farmer curled up beneath his gloves fantasized relaxing under his favorite tree eating pudding with a good book in his lap with all his worries of the tower behind him. An almost manic little laugh left his lips at the thought.

Then the crunch of footsteps pulled the farmer from his delusions and by the sounds of it they were drawing closer. This realization had his eyes bulging and lips puckering into his face as if having just eaten something incredibly sour.* No! Nononoononono..go away...please go away!* Screaming in his head for whoever lurked outside to go away or walk by him, anything just don't notice him.

Yet, the footsteps continued drawing near; sweating bullets and trembling as he hugged his legs to him more.* Are they gonna kill me? No..no they said the test was over..oh god! What if they force me to join their team?!* Panting and gasping as if on the verge of a panic attack, the blonde scrambling to work out a plan to get himself out of this situation with his first thought to run but quickly discarded that, shaking his head while cursing his shit endurance. Maybe they will notice what a complete weakling he was and ignore him? Yeah, No sane fighter or warrior would possibly want a nobody loser like him on their time right?

Patting his closed left fist against his right palm at that logic, figuring they would move on and nodded to himself trying to believe that will happen.

Letting out a low sigh of relief and shaky chuckle." Y-yeah....I should fine...." A hope quickly dashed by the hand slipping beneath the gloves to grip the back hem of his overalls though they might as well been the cold empty hand of death coiling around his neck preparing to snuff out his life.

Without any trouble, Kazu found himself being pulled from hiding to find himself held up and dangling in the clutches of some guy. A mere glance at this 19 year old blonde could tell any that he certainly was beyond weak with slightly less than average build lacking defined muscles even for one like him who had been working on a farm all his life and yet his body seemed unable to bulk up. He had nothing but the dirt stained overalls on his back, a simple gardening hoe and two huge armored gloves floating nearby.

" Huh..what?! Are you out of your mind? I refuse!" He rebuked in a panic while struggling against the unknown stranger's grip and turned his fear stricken face up, ready to continue his straight up refusal to join the team when his eyes caught sight of those dog ears causing his eyes to nearly shoot out of their sockets at the sight of them." Gaaaah! YOu have dog ears!? What the hell? Help! Some dog eared beast is kidnapping me!!" Thrashing like an animal fearing for its life; struggling wildly to get free or if anything to get away from this dog eared freak. A bout of struggling that ended quickly as it started as it had him panting and wheezing as if he just ran a marathon and was left weakly waving his arms while coughing and gasping.


" Whyyyyyyyyyyyy?! I never even got to eat my last pudding cup!" Tears streaming from his dejected face as the gloves floating nearby had imitated every motion of his own hands which could of been used to possibly free himself had Kazu actually had any battle sense and not in a pure panic state.

Aleck, Kaz and Jiu were walking through the field mostly avoiding people when the lighthouse that the test administrator has been using showed itself again. " Congratulations remaining regulars! You have passed the test! Again welcome to hell! " the trio smiled then high fived each other as they wondered what would happen next.

Suddenly the trio was in a great hall, " this must be the place for the next test" Aleck told Kaz and Jiu who both nodded in agreement. Suddenly armored young man walked up to the testing group " hello regulars I am ranker Nae-Woo of the Yeon family" he said looking at the testing group with a bored expression. Aleck smiled another great family member huh, he walked up to Nae-Woo and held out his hand " Khun Aleck Gelaro nice to meet another great family member" he said. Nae looked at Aleck coldly "We are not alike regular now get back to your team" he said. Aleck frowned and walked back to Kaz and Jiu.

After Aleck had walked back to his team Nae looked at the rest of the regulars. " I and the other test administrators have decided to give you a thirty minute break before the next test spend it wisely" he said and walked off.

From one test to the next, with barely any space in between to rest or reflect on their performance, thrown from place to place without care or concern for their safety or sanity; Evankhell’s Hell sure was living up to its name, wasn’t it?

Candice smirked as she leaned back in her seat, arms above her and she linked her fingers together behind her head. It was amazing anybody managed to pass through here in order to challenge the Tower proper; taken from wherever they were without warning and flung onto the first floor to be given a test by Headon himself, then tossed carelessly into a fight for their lives as they whittled themselves down from 400 to 200, then given the task of making allies with those they had just tried to murder before being brought here and given a meagre half an hour to recover before being thrown into the jaws of the next test.

It was cruel, the way they drew people in with the promise of fulfilling their wildest dreams only to chew them up and spit them out. The Tower was cruel, with a cruel king and even crueller gods.

If was just her then she wouldn’t have to worry about being chewed up, but unfortunately the test administrators had seen fit to saddle her with two liabilities in the form of teammates. She turned her head to look at them now; besides the idiot who tried to fight her there was also some guy with a white coat and sharp eyes that had shown up in front of them. It was luck rather than anything else that led to him joining them, the short time limit didn’t give any of them the luxury of being discerning, so hopefully he would prove to be useful.

Her eyes slid over to the one who had fought her earlier. He was hurt, which was a problem; he might have been worth something if he wasn’t, but as he was now he was likely to just drag them down. “You better not slow me down in the next test; injured or not, I expect you to pull your weight.” Her eyes then moved to the other one with the interesting eyes. “That goes for you too. What can you do?”

@SilverPaw@Noodles

Ha-nul trailed after the Princess in a light jog, clutching an arm across his lower torso. Two injured ribs on his left and one on his right, plus several bruises all over. At least the bones weren’t actually broken. Still, the longer he kept going on like this, the more chance that his injuries were exacerbated. Thankfully, this first test was now over; they just had to find a third person.

And lo’ and behold, some guy sprung from the grass, apparently as surprised to see them as they were at his appearance. “Sure, join up. We need one more as it is,” Ha-nul confirmed. He flickered a wary gaze at Candice, but apparently, she was all too aware that time was running out. So, their trio was formed and they were transported to the inside of a building. They were given a 30-minute recess before the next test.

Rang sighed at the short reprieve. Rose’s commence had him frowning; he hated to admit it, but she was right to be worried. “You’re the one who got me into this state in the first place,” he muttered grumpily. “Don’t worry, I’m off to look for some bandages or something,” he stated soon after, at a normal volume level.

Ha-nul wandered around the hall, from vending machine to vending machine. If they had drinks and food, surely there was such a thing as a first-aid kit? Eventually, he did find a dispenser for bandage-packets and balm-jars, though he winced at the price. “Money mode,” Rang intoned, forming and o with his fingers, and made his purchase. Then he just plopped down plopped down against the nearest wall, removed the shirt, and set to treating himself as best as he was able to.

@King Cosmos@Noodles

“Allow me to tend to your injuries.” Taril creased a slight frown at the sloppy self bandaging. It was a good thing that its not an injury of any serious sort. But making it worse for the next test was the last his team would want.

With a few light taps on his diagnosis, he could tell that Ha-nul is well built. Only one of a rich and influential family would have their time and resources to train to this extent. With that in mind, Taril found it even harder to believe that the woman could break Ha-nul’s ribs. Its fortunate that she wasn’t the one tending the first aid. That women is more likely to strangle his chest with the bandages...

“There you go,” Tying off the bandages, Taril snapped the first aid kit shut. ”As long as you don’t strain it too much, it will be fine.”

“Usually I receive money for this kind of job, but since it isn’t any major surgery I wouldn’t mind so.”

@King Cosmos@SilverPaw

Nikola sat in the hall, sitting on two chairs. One for his body and another for his feet. The Canine Lord was currently scouting out their competition, the various regulars that he would soon fight were all interacting with one another. The regulars were exchanging words,gestures, and one seemed to be even healing one of them. All the while Nikola put a mental bounty on each of them.

'The other red head is probably worth alot of points atleast a few hundred, followed by that Khun kid, that brown haired kid has a nice sword though...'

After assigning some mental points to figure out his new targets Nikola turned toward his own teammate in his vicinity. The ever strong Runa resting in her own chair beside him.

"So what do we do about the dead weight?"

Nikola pointed his thumb to the wide eyed country bumpkin who kept screaming about wanting to fail. Nikola would've preferred busting the kid's head and getting it over with but he was technically his teammate right now.

@Sylvan @samreaper

Runa looked over the new, whiny addition to the team as Nikola held him aloft, taking note of the large, floating gloves that were mimicking the young mans hand movements.

Why isn't he using those to defend himself from Nikola? They might even work... Runa thought to herself as she approached the other two, just as the strange floating box returned.

"Congratulations remaining regulars! You have passed the test! Again welcome to hell!"

After the announcement completed, Runa blinked, and found that the three of them had been transported to a great hall along with the other teams that were left. In this hall, a finely-dressed young man addressed the crowd, before retreating to wherever the test administrators went when not around the regulars.

Sitting down with her teammates, Runa took a few energy bars from her pack and offering them to her teammates before replying to Nikola.

"I say we keep him. I think he could be useful if properly motivated, look at those gloves of his... They look useful, and he controls them, even if he doesn't seem to realize it, like a diamond in the rough. We've just got to break him out of his shell, or something. Maybe. I was never very good at teaching... Besides, he did survive this far, and he was chosen in the first place, so he's got to be worth something."

@ColourlessKing@samreaper

Kazumin

The blonde farmer struggled in vain to get free and in his panic failed to notice Runa at first. Not till she stepped over and spoke which had him jumping in shock." Ah! Are you part of this?! You can't go forcing others against their will!" Flailing his accusing finger at the unknown girl then shot a glare up at the dog eared stranger. Opening his mouth; cut off by the announcer declaring that those remaining and in teams have passed and to his displeasure saw yet again a glow forming around the three of them.

" No no NO! Not again!" Squirming anew in the hopes of escaping whatever was transporting them but as expected failed to do so. Frantically looking around at the field with panicked eyes, trying to figure out what he should but couldn't think of anything to save him though by instinct or fear one thing popped into his head." Gah! So unfair!...Invisible!" He shouted out moments before they were transported causing his gloves to go invisible as he had a feeling it was best to keep them hidden.

After the unpleasant sensation of transporting ended, he found himself crouching behind the chairs of the two. Hearing them talk about him in such a rude manner as if he wasn't there and would of told them it was their fault for dragging him along, but being in a room full of strong looking individuals kept him from doing so. * Tch..damn bastards talking about me as I'm useless. You're the ones who forced me into your team...just you wait, I'll make both of you regret toying with me..I'll get all three of us disqualified.* He thought to himself while wringing his gloved hands; laughing in his head at making them and that blasted Headon pay for tearing him away from his simple and easygoing farm life. So go ahead and enjoy the break cause by the end of it the three of them would be heading back as he was determined to be done with all of this.

Kaz wasn't too sure about this whole situation, thirty minutes for a break? The silver dwarf had never heard anything about the test administrators doing that before. 'hmmm maybe the tests change each year I mean it has been quite a while since my siblings climbed the tower' he thought to himself and looked around. Kaz then looked around at all the regulars around his group and started to profile them.

'I'll start with the canine guy first' he thought and narrowed his eyes as he looked at the dog man. Judging from now he held himself he probably thought highly of his abilities which while Kaz didn't know anything about these canine people really be did know people who were extremely arrogant are either skilled or had skilled teammates. " I'll keep an eye on that one" he muttered and the looked at the red haired girl that looked like a red witch but he didn't exactly know if she was one. 'hmm another person who could see in the future could be troublesome even if they see fate instead of the immediate future' Kaz then looked at the blonde haired guy they were talking about ,he was dirty and seemed like a farmer and really didn't seem like a threat at all though Kaz could sense something around the guy and couldn't see what it was even with looking at the crossroads which unnerved Kaz more than he would've liked.

Kaz then looked at the other main team that caught his eye. Another red head though she didn't look as much like a red witch as the other one. She held her self confidently though like the dog guy so she could be trouble. He then looked at the one being healed, the red caped guy Kaz didn't exactly know how a cape could come in handy during a fight maybe it was special or sometimes people liked looking cool for aesthetic purposes. The red caped guy could be a threat though as Kaz had only seen him when injured, now the guy who was performing medical treatment on the red caped dude could be a good teammate if he was going to continue with healing.

Nodding to himself Kaz motioned for Aleck and Jiu to follow them then walked up to the team with the red caped guy first. " Hi I'm Kaz Edrok, this is Khun Aleck Gelaro and Zung-Jiu-Markano nice to meet you" he said smiling.



Aleck looked around at all the other regulars and did a quick but not in depth sizing up. Most of his profiling was just ' yeah they seem like a challenge to fight , this guy could be a challenge ,this guy's not a challenge ' the last thought was mainly for the farmer looking guy. Aleck then looked down at his short teammate and just raised an eyebrow at the intense expression on the silver dwarfs face. Suddenly he noticed that the silver dwarf 'Kaz the dwarf said his name was kaz' Aleck mentally told himself. If he was going to be teammates with the short man he would have to remember his name, so Aleck suddenly noticed that Kaz was gesturing them to walk over to the other team.

Aleck wasn't quite sure why Kaz was taking them over to another team and Aleck wasn't quite certain he liked it. "Hi I'm Kaz Edrok" Aleck heard Kaz begin , ok well at least Speck sound th ave to introduce himself. He chuckled to himself as he thought of introducing himself to people he didn't know, he wasn't exactly social like that though he did think making allies would be beneficial. Looking at the other regulars as Kaz introduced themselves and Aleck and Jiu Aleck did a halfhearted smile and wave.

Ha-nul blinked up at his newest team-mate, bemused. “Go ahead,” he said, and watched as the medic (doctor? Healer? Rang wasn’t certain) re-bandaged his wounds. “Thanks,” he said, a grin spreading. It did feel better done; there was more support to his ribs now, and Ha-nul thought he could move rather decently. “I won’t forget this, so I’ll help you out next time you need it,” he promised. Privately, he thought he’d also need to save much more money if he wanted to get something that could speed up the healing of his bones.

Just as he stood up, a trio of males came over to introduce themselves. Must be checking out the competition, he though with a smile. One of them was an armored swordsman named Markano, one was a Khun, and the last one, Kaz, was apparently a Silver Dwarf. What an interesting group. Seeing no reason not to get acquainted with them, the boy offered, “Heya, I’m Ha-nul Rang. Too much free time on your hands, eh?” he joked.

@Noodles@Jasper19

Hun woke up to darkness the deepest darkness he had ever experienced. Slowly standing up while holding his arms out for stability Hun looked around. "This must be the first floor." he mused. Looking into the great expanse of darkness he wondered where Headon was did the rabbit just leave me? he thought to himself.

" Welcome to the first floor child" a voice called out from the darkness. Quickly turning his head in the direction of he voice Hun called out " who's there!? ".

A chuckle filled the air and Headon appeared out of the darkness. His head turned revealing a single she and a shark like grin. He looks....hungry almost Hun thought which went a shiver of fear down the "young" man's spine. The god of the tower's grin widened almost like he could sense Hun's thoughts. Headon looked at Hun's suit and chuckled " Hmm you probably won't last long in the tower " Headon said grinning. Hun's face was that of indignation "Wo-wa-Won't last long!? How dare you! I'll prove you wrong rabbit and reach the top of the tower! Even if takes stepping on the heads of so called friends or the heads of peasants!" Hun yelled his face red with anger.

" Will you now? Well I would thoroughly enjoy it if you proved me wrong. " Headon answered back his sinister smile growing wider by the second.

With a swish of his staff Headon caused four low level shinheuh mainly two Barnacle Goblins and two Striped Ground Pigs. Hun looked at the enemies and ran a hand through his hair he had never exactly attacked anything physically before. Hun looked at Headon for confirmation who just stared at him with one of his eyes challenging Hun to take the test. Bouncing on the balls of his feet Hun looked at the shinheuh clenching his fists Hun felt his body strengthen. Must be adrenaline he thought and began to walk to the barnacle goblins. Punching the closest of the two Hun was extremely surprised when the thing was knocked out. Beating up the second barnacle goblin fairly easily though he had been whacked on the head a couple of times. Turning his attention to the ground pigs Hun had more difficulty dealing with these shinheuh than the goblins as they were faster and more agile. Eventually though Hun was able to defeat the pigs by throwing one into the other.

" Well done maybe you will have what it takes to climb the tower" Headon said indifferent.

Smiling Hun was about to say something on how he would prove the rabbit wrong and restore his family name and fortune when suddenly he blacked out. Huh opened his eyes to a...blue sky? Sitting up Hun realized he was surrounded by tall golden grass? wheat? Well whatever it was it didn't matter. Standing up Hun listened to the announcement on how he was on the second floor and the supposed "herd" needed thinning. " What ever it takes to reach the top" he said to himself. So for the duration of the challenge Hun killed whoever he came across through various means, beating them to death, snapping necks and more beating once even he himself got killed as a massive shockwave from a explosion sent him flying into the grass and into the path of a few angry regulars.

" hey! That's the guy who beat up Tsun then ran! " they called out.

A few moments later Hun was wiping blood off of his knuckles and straightening his tie. " Punching seems to be very effective " he thought to himself as he felt his body weaken after the "adrenaline " left his body. What Hun didn't know was that he was subconsciously strengthening his body using the souls of whoever he killed which he had gained from his contract with the administrator and because of this Hun's body would strengthen itself with souls whenever his adrenaline spiked. After a few more run ins with some regulars Hun eventually overheard the announcement to...team up?

These test administrators sure are weird he thought as he looked around.

After a couple of minutes of searching Hun would eventually find some teammates and pass the test. Upon being transported to a building like place which the announcers had dubbed " hell" Hun was devastated to find his teammates just left. It wasn't because he exactly cared for them, more so it was because without teammates Hun wouldn't be able to pass. So Hun looked around and after listening to the test administrator and watching some Khun kid try talking to him Hun began to look for new teammates. Not being able to find any Hun thought he would fail when he noticed a armored boy on the team of the silver dwarf and son of Khun was leaving. Taking this momentary blessing Hun easily slipped in place of where the armored boy was and acted like he has been there the entire time.