10 Chapter 10: The Earthlings Arrive

I groaned as I slowly woke up quickly coming too in the familiar atrium. As I rolled to my feet, the voice of the tower blasted through my head.

"Congratulations applicant, you have successfully passed the third floor with a grade of S. Awarding applicant 54,000 points for the outstanding performance."

Another damn S rating. I wondered what rank I would have got if my sword strike had landed. I suppose there is always next time. Though supposedly, I would start taking the test with others from now on. I wondered if that was going to make it easier or harder.

I guess I'll find out. I then started looking around to see if I could spot Matt's distinct outfit anywhere in the crowded atrium.

I didn't see him right away, but I did notice there was a significant increase in the numbers of humans wandering around. Instead of the occasional human overshadowed by all sorts of other fantastical alien creatures, now the humans made up nearly a quarter of the crowd.

I wondered what had prompted the change.

I figured there was only one way to find out, and considering I was stuck here till Matt decided to show up, I needed something to pass the time. I approached one of the humans who was dressed in regular earth clothing, just jeans, and a t-shirt, unlike the more strange and exotic outfits I got used to seeing on the aliens.

He nervously turned to me as I stuck out my hand, introducing myself. He replied, letting me know his name was Ian, and before I could stop him, he barraged me with a torrent of questions.

"What the hell is this? I was just outside checking out some strange black tower when I was thrown in this death game. Is this the afterlife? And what the hell use are these points?"

I held up my hands, trying to ward off his endless questions as let out a wry smile. Well, his ignorance of the tower gave me an idea of where all these humans came from.

They were like me just coming a little later. I wonder why there was such a vast surge nearly a day after I came in. But that didn't matter what happened in the outside world wasn't going to affect me for a long time.

I decided I should at least give a little help to the rookie seeing as he was like me not long ago. I pointed to the marble building simply called "SHOP" and said.

"Just go over there and get a race and element the more expensive, the better. I would suggest being quick about it too since you'll have another test soon."

He kept pestering me with questions, but I was eventually able to shoo him away as he walked towards the shop I had pointed out. I was worried I was going to get barraged with more questions from all the new people, but no one approached me.

I then realized my race change probably made me look different enough that the humans just took me for another alien.

Luckily I didn't have to wait too long before I saw Matt pushing his way through the crowd his abnormal clothing, drawing him tons of question seekers as we walked towards me.

He started talking as he pointed back at the crowd following him.

"Looks like the rest of your planet are starting to show. Much more persistent then you where. So hows my favorite soon to be teammate pass the last test with flying colors?"

I shrugged and replied

"Got another S. I swear I'm going to get an X one of these days. But hey, why aren't you trying to recruit all the newbies. I thought it's what you hung around here for."

He laughed and said

"Your an exception hadn't seen any new humans in quite a while, so I figured I'd give you a hand. Gotta stick together and all. As for recruiting no point until they pass the second test. Most of these will die no matter how much help I give them now. Better to let the tower weed them out."

I shook my head at his disregard for hundreds of deaths. But then I suppose for as long as he has been in the tower deaths no longer such a stranger.

I knew he was right too. Remembering the tigers, I knew if I hadn't managed to get such an overpowered race, I wouldn't have stood a chance. I sighed. I hoped some of them survived. It'd be nice to have someone from earth to reminisce with.

Seeing my sullen silence, Matt came up, patting me on the shoulder as he said.

"Look, I know it may be hard to process now. But this is the way of the tower. If you want to have any hopes of changing it, you need to at least survive it yourself. Come on let's grab what you need to buy before getting out of here."

That quickly jogged me out of my stupor as I remembered all the points I just gained. I realized for once I didn't even have any idea of what to spend them on. So I decided to ask. Matt grinned at my question and said.

"Well, we got to get the necessities out of the way. Since you just broke through, you can buy the next stage of cultivation. But after that, it's time to get you some real armor, not whatever weird clothes you've been wearing."

I raised my eye at him calling my clothes weird while he walked around in a straw hat and kimiono, but decided to ignore it and followed him towards the shops.

The first shop was the body cultivation shop. I was only given one option this time True Sword Scripture Volume 2 for 30,000 points. I grumbled at the idea of losing over half my points on one item but bought it anyway.

As soon as I did, I felt the Sword Ki in my body expanding until it filled every cell, nearly doubling my strength as I reached the peak of rank 2.

After that though was the fun part he led me to a shop called.

"The Great and Wonderful Armour Emporium"

I was excited to go to a shop who's name finally wasn't just a boring, straightforward description of what it sold. I decided to ask why there was such a difference in naming sense.

Matt grinned at my question and said

"All those boring names are thought up by the tower or whoever's in charge of it. All the more interesting shops though are set up by people who have previously cleared the tower. I'm not sure what they use the points for, though."

I looked around at the thousands of unique shop names realizing how many people must have entered this tower for so many people to have cleared it.

I started wondering what I would name my shop if I one day made it out of here. My thoughts were quickly interrupted as we arrived at the shop, and Matt started giving out advice.

"When your picking items, try and find something that has a useful enchant. Stealth or teleportation or something like that. Anything that's just plain armor won't be all that useful for you. Your skins already better armor then anything you'll be able to afford."

I nodded, getting excited at finally getting to shop for something fun as I pressed my hand against the door popping up the list.

Armour

Basic Chest Piece 500pts

Basic Helmet 600 pts

Full Knights Set 2,000 pts

....

Dreadlords Breast Plate 15,000pts

Cloak of Teleportation 20,000pts

The list had a similar lack of descriptions as with all the shops I had experienced so far. Luckily the names gave pretty good hints at what they would do. I eventually ended up settling on the Cloak of Teleportation as it barely fit into my budget, and I couldn't see how teleportation could be useless.

Upon my selection, a bright light started signing above me before a cloak dropped down on me, hitting me in the face.

I quickly grabbed it, checking it out. It seemed like a reasonably normal fur cloak. No glowing runes or magical smoke, just a plain fur cloak. Though looking at it, I noticed a tag on the bottom that read.

"Cloak of Teleportation. To use merely place upon the shoulders and think of any destination within 10 meters of the user. It can be used three times per day."

I was a little sad about the distance and using limits but knew it would still undoubtedly come in handy. If I had it during the last test, I'm sure I could have killed that damn skeleton. After I finished putting on the cloak, Matt grabbed me by my shoulder and said with a cheeky grin.

"Come on. Enough admiring your new gear. Let's get back to my place. I've got lots of stress to relive. Ahem, I mean, we have lots of training to do."