Chapter 4. Second Floor

As an uncomfortable bright light annoyed him through his eyelids, Isaac slowly awoke.

'... Where am I?'

After he opened his eyes, he saw that he wasn't in his room or on Headon's floor anymore – it was bright, too bright.

Looking up, he saw a perfectly blue sky.

[Oi, Master, you're finally awake!]

"Hmm…" Isaac hummed as he looked at Clarent that was still in his grip.

He then propped up his body and glanced around.

He seemed to be lying in a flat plane with tall grasses around. As far as he could tell, he was alone.

He recalled what happened before this. He was not an ordinary person like Bam, but even with his strength of Mordred Heroic Spirit, he was still knocked unconscious just like that by the Ball!

The power of the beings from the Tower could not be underestimated.

'How long was I out?' Isaac asked, inwardly calling out toward Clarent.

[I dunno. It was all darkness for me. And it was suuuper… boring. But I guess about a few hours passed.]

"I see…" Isaac muttered a quiet reply.

And at that moment an accomplished expression appeared on his face.

He passed! He smashed the Eel, popped the Ball and passed the first test!

With Mordred's strength, he was quite a badass.

At that moment, a loud and slightly excited voice of a man sounded out from the sky:

{Mic test! Mic test!}

{One, two, three! One, two, three!}

Isaac's heart cooled when he heard this, and he became more focused.

He recalled that now he was on the Second Floor, and he should prepare for the next test that would happen right after.

[Huh, what's that? That voice comes from that cube in the air.]

As Mordred commented, Isaac looked up and soon noticed a yellow cube floating in the air as well.

After a brief pause, the voice continued speaking:

{Hello, everyone. All of the Regulars who have made it to the Tower… We sincerely welcome all of you to the 2nd floor, Evankhell's Floor!}

Hearing these words, Isaac collected himself as looked around. 

'What will happen next would be a death match. Not that I am not strong enough, but I should take this chance to get to a better location than an open field.'

Without further ado, he began jogging, sword in hand, toward a rocky mound that he saw in the distance.

He didn't want to stay easily displayed on a flat ground with grass only half his height.

Mordred didn't comment, while the excited voice from the cube continued:

{This is Evankhell's Floor. It is also called the 'Floor of tests'! Because… Here we carry out the final test to see whether you are qualified to go up the Tower.}

{Well, I will explain the details to you later. First, let's start the first test.}

{The rule for the first test is as follows…}

{There are 400 Regulars here. Narrow down 400 to 200. Try every possible means!}

{The test ends when the number of regulars reaches 200.}

{Ready?}

{...}

{Begin!}

Mordred commented on that, [So it's another test! Quite brutal! But you're quick to catch on, Master, it would be safer if we first took some cover.]

As Mordred spoke all this, and soon after the announcement ended, Isaac suddenly stopped as he encountered a frail-looking pre-teen boy with short dark-brown hair on his way.

The boy looked up at the sky with a dazed and worried expression, holding a black, thin needle-like sword in his hand.

'Are you freaking kidding me?! Bam?!' Isaac looked on at the boy, frozen.

[Hey, Master! Isn't that the weak little boy that this woman called Yuri mentioned? His weapon is super strong too!]

At that moment, Isaac and the boy looked at each other.

After a moment's lag, a frightened expression appeared on the boy's face. 'Narrow down the 400 to 200… Try every possible means, which means…'

"Aaaaaghhh!"

An anguished scream suddenly sounded out from the distance, confirming his suspicions.

'Right, we have to kill each other!'

Having realized his situation, the boy gripped his weapon with a panicked expression, bringing it in front of him to point its tip toward Isaac as he took a step back.

Seeing the boy point his needle at him with half-hearted determination, Isaac brought his own sword down, smiled in a friendly manner and said, "Don't worry, I don't want to fight."

"Huh?" The boy blinked his eyes in surprise. Weren't they supposed to kill each other? Wasn't that the test?

"You are called Bam, right?" Isaac asked.

The boy blinked his eyes a few times again, looking shocked. "You… How do you know my name?"

"I know Yuri. Come with me, it isn't safe here," Isaac said shortly, looking around in wariness, then walked over to grab the boy's hand.

In such an open plain, they are way too vulnerable to the attacks of snipers and archers.

After hearing Yuri's name, Bam was stunned at first and felt more relaxed as he didn't resist Isaac taking his hand and beginning to dragging him away.

However, before the two managed to make any distance from their spot, a tall tanned man with a large sword suddenly leaped out from the tall grasses to confront them.

The man was muscular, his hair very long and bound into a ponytail at the back, while a face mask covered his lower jaw. Seeming to have noticed the heavily armored Isaac, the man looked at him and stood in place, hesitating.

[Just a weakling. Go kill him, Master!] Mordred called out.

As if to confirm Mordred's judgment, the man quickly turned around and began running away without saying a word.

[Coward! Go get him, Master!... Oi, what are you doing? We have to pass the test!]

However, Isaac ignored Mordred's anxious calls and also the man, and began dragging Bam away instead.

While looking around, he called toward Clarent, 'There's no point in killing him. It's a survival game, not a death match. Even if I do nothing, the others will still kill each other to lower the number to 200 eventually. It's more important to protect the boy and make allies.'

[Ah, right... You're right, Master. Uh, my bad.] Mordred said in an embarrassed tone; she hadn't thought of that.

Meanwhile, the boy looked on with an amazed expression as the muscular man ran away, seeming to have been scared off by Isaac.

Noticing the boy looking at him with a mix of fear and hope, Isaac's heart thumped as he suddenly pulled him toward himself, his instincts warning him in advance.

It was just in time to pull the boy from a salvo of arrows that followed.

The arrows embed themselves in the ground a bit further away.

The boy saw this and his eyes narrowed in shock and fear. If he didn't move from that spot, he would have ended up being skewered by these arrows!

"It's not safe here. Let's go," said Isaac.

Before Bam had a chance to respond with a thank you, the armored young man began to drag him away again.

"Oh… Okay. Th-thank you!"

To get to the next floor he needed to be one of the 200 survivors, and if he followed this person he might make it!

Bang!

Not long later, a singular and loud gunshot was heard.

Recalling the webtoon, Isaac imagined the archer being killed by this shot.

Unlike arrows, gunshots would be even more difficult to deal with. Maybe it was not a threat for him, but it would be more difficult to protect Bam here.

He grabbed Bam and started dragging him away toward the rocky mound.

…

"We should be safe here from any ranged attacks," Isaac said as he sat down behind a large rocky mound that provided good cover, looking down at the young boy next to him.

"Phew! Thank you…. For helping me," Bam said while catching up his breath after the running they did.

On the way, they also encountered one more huge monster that attacked them, but Isaac easily cut it in half with his sword.

"You're welcome. By the way, my name is Isaac. You are Bam, right?" Isaac extended his hand to the pre-teen boy with an amicable smile.

"Y-yes… I'm Bam, Twenty-Fifth Bam. It's the day I was born," the boy muttered as he took Isaac's hand with a shy smile.

'No surprise there…' Isaac thought to himself, smiling back at Bam.

At first, he felt that it was too coincidental that he met Bam so quickly, but he didn't think so anymore.

Bam and him basically started in roughly the same location, almost as if Headon wanted them to meet!

Could that guy even have some kind of precognition ability? Or did he count on Bam's fate.

But given that Bam was really just an ordinary little boy with no special powers, it wasn't even that strange. Without plot armor or someone's protection, he would simply die soon after getting here.

…

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

After getting rid of the pest on the top of the hill, a muscular 3-meter tall beast man with gray skin and an alligator-like head looked down the cliff to scout the area.

'Now, let's see… Are there any fellows worth hunting?'

Rak's eyes scanned the plains and quickly became attracted to several powerful figures.

'Hey, what's going on? There are… Oh, god…'

Rak smacked his lips in excitement.

'... A plenty!'

Then, his heart suddenly chilled from fright. '!!!'

'What is that aura? Does it come from behind that hill?'

Rak squinted his eyes.

It was powerful, overwhelmingly so!!!

As Rak's heart chilled, he began to feel uncomfortable.

'It's too much. Let's avoid that place and find something more fitting to hunt…' Rak noted to himself, slightly nodding.

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AN: A small summary of the formatting:

"Something." - is for speech.

'Something...' - is for thoughts.

[Something.] - is for thought transmission from an Ignition Weapon (Mordred) or from something similar.

{Something.} - is for voice transmission from a speaker or a Light House.