Fourth Floor (1)

Lo Po Bia Dan, the Ruler of the 4th Floor, received a notification that a new group of Regulars has passed the 3rd Floor. He enjoyed greeting and observing the ants that pass by his Floor.

From time to time, a few of those ants would catch his attention. That's already surprising considering he is a High Ranker. He might not be the strongest in his family, but he is definitely not weak.

The biggest reason he is a Ruler of the 4th Floor is that he is more disposable compared to others. In case the ticking time bomb from the Floor below explodes, he would be able to delay her for a just a little bit.

Dan hasn't personally seen how strong Diana is, but he has heard stories about her. If any of them are to be trusted, only a handful of Rankers would be able to match her in terms of Shinsoo control. And of those few, two of them are her parents, showing how strong she is.

Looking through the information on the Regulars, Dan saw two Princesses of Zahard on that team. 'Hah, this would be an interesting bunch.'

Teleporting with his partner in tow, he appeared in the room that Regulars get sent to. His partner had already comfortably laid on the ground. Dan found his own comfortable position with his back against his partner.

In a moment, seven Regulars appeared in front of him. 'That's odd, my information stated there should be eight of them.'

Dan wasn't the only one that found the situation confusing since the group was also looking around for their last member. He kept quiet and used that chance to observe the group.

Excluding the two Princesses, the others were carrying themselves with confidence. A strong aura was being emitted from them. 'A few predators in the making.' Dan thought.

After another minute or so, the last and final member of that group appeared. And when he did, Dan's eyes were drawn to him. He instantly felt that the black-haired one wasn't predator in the making, he already is one. Dan wasn't the only one to sense that. His partner was also alerted to his presence.

One of the Princesses question him why he was late, but he responded quite sharply to her. 'I already like this one.'

Lumen carefully observed the cat-eared man in front of him. The man was as tall as Anak while only sitting on the ground. His arms and legs were extremely muscular and as thick as logs. Brown hair and brown eyes, his facial features were very sharp, and he had a thick brown beard.

The man was propping himself against a green wall, but a sudden movement to his left was what made him realize that's not a wall. A gigantic, grizzly bear head was staring at him from that side. The bear had to be at least 30m long and 15m in height. Its green fur resembled moss stuck to a rock.

The man opened his mouth, and a deep and domineering voice came out from it.

"Welcome to my Floor, Regulars. My name is Lo Po Bia Dan, the Ruler of the 4th Floor." Just sitting on the ground, he was radiating the aura of a beast. That of an apex predator.

"You are currently on the first level of my ship, the Ursala. Since you have successfully passed the 3rd Floor, you are granted the privilege of having a free room and free food while on the 4th Floor."

"The first level is where all the Regular could come and mingle with each other. There are a few entertainment establishments that you could go and explore on your own. Nothing too fancy, mind you since you don't deserve that."

"On the second level, you could find the various amount of restaurants where you could eat. As I said, food is free on this Floor, so the chefs would be happy to take your orders."

"The third level is where you will be sleeping. Each team that has advanced to my Floor receives two rooms. How you divide them is up to you." Dan pulled out two keycards and threw them to the group.

"Only two rooms? Shouldn't you give me my own personal one as a Princess of Zahard?" Androssi arrogantly questioned Dan.

"Pha, Princess or not, this is my Floor, and you will follow my rules like it or not. Get your own Floor, and set up your own Rules, or kill me and take my rights as a Ruler if you have the guts." Dan told her with a sinister smile.

Androssi narrowed her eyes in anger but kept quiet. Dan seeing that she has nothing else to say, continued.

"Now, there is an additional fourth and last level, but you are prohibited from going there. That's my own personal level where all my creatures run around. Should you go there, you will end up as nothing more than food for them. Only those that I personally invite are allowed to go there."

After saying that, Dan finally stood up, and he was easily over 3m tall. Lumen and his team looked like little kids compared to him.

Dan pulled out ten grey armbands from his Pocket and threw them at Lumen.

"You need those armbands for the Test on the Floor. You could have a team with at most ten members and two at minimum. The Test on the Floor happens once every month. The team leader could give those armbands to his chosen team members, and they would have to select one of two teams. Should you happen to lose an armband or just want to get more to form your own team, you could buy them from the first level of the ship, for the low price of 1 000 Points."

Androssi wasn't exceptionally happy that Dan had thrown the armbands to Lumen, designating him as the team leader.

"Hey, shouldn't you have given them to someone else?" She said, raising her eyebrows and implying she should have received them.

"Pha! Although there are a few strong ants, I mean Regulars amongst you, he is on another league compared to the rest of you." Dan said while staring at Lumen.

As much as it hurt Androssi to hear that, she couldn't deny it and argue with him. Princess or not, that guy proved he is way stronger than her in their fight.

Since she didn't reply to him, Dan continued his explanations.

"Now, the Test on the 4th Floor is very simple, and I like to call it 'Bring back the Golden Bull'. One day before it begins, the armbands will notify you. Then you would have to select and divide your members. You could have one member in one team and everyone else the other team, or you could spread your members evenly. How you do it is up to you."

"The two teams are Mountain and Plain. Each team has its own tasks and rules. There are two main areas on the Test Floor. The Mountain team will be teleported to a mountain area. The Mountain team is not allowed to leave that area. If it does, the members will be disqualified."

"There is a giant castle on that mountain, the team's task is to secure and capture that castle. In order to secure the castle, your team has to be the only one inside it."

"If there is a member of another team inside, the castle will not be considered captured. If the castle is successfully captured by a team, the team's name will appear on top of it, and they will be its owners."

"The Plain team, will be teleported to, you guessed it, a plain area. The plain area is a lot larger than the mountain one, and it's filled with various dangerous animals. The team's task is to locate and capture the Golden Bull. The bull must be captured alive. "

"Once they capture the Golden Bull, they have to bring it back to the castle in the mountain area. Unlike the Mountain team, the Plain team is allowed to move between the two areas, but only if they have the Golden Bull with them. Only the Plain team could be in physical contact with the bull."

"Now, here's the tricky part, Plain team members are forbidden from attacking the Mountain team members, but Mountain team members can attack them freely. The Plain team is allowed to enter the castle, only if it's owned by the Mountain team from the same side."

"Once the Golden Bull is brought back to it's shed by a team, the Test will end, and they will advance to the 5th Floor. There has to be at least one member from each group alive otherwise, the Test will end in failure. If no team manages to bring back the bull within two weeks, the Test will end in failure. If the Golden Bull is killed, the Test will also end in failure, and the Regular that killed the bull will be penalized."

"Those are the rules of the Test on my Floor. Simple and easy, I'm not repeating myself again, so consult with your teammates if you don't understand something, don't look for me." Dan told them with a grin. He gave Lumen one last look and teleported away.

Once he was gone, Androssi spoke up. "Those Floor Rulers sure are arrogant." She didn't forget that Dan had called them ants. Androssi really hated to be looked down by others.

"They are Rankers, after all. There is nothing much we could do to them. They have already climbed the Tower and have proven themselves." Leesoo said.

While they were talking, Lumen was studying the armband, but there was nothing special about it. He put one on his hand and threw one to each of his teammates, but he was still left with two more.

"Since we are lacking a Light Bearer, if you find anyone worth recruiting, send them to me. In fact, if you find anyone that you would consider special in some way, send them to me."

Lumen wouldn't even hesitate to replace some of his teammates, should someone better pop up.

"Since we have two keycards, we will just go with one room for the males and one for the females." Saying that he threw one of the keycards to Anak.

Andorssi narrowed her eyes in annoyance at Lumen. "Hello? Shouldn't you have given it to me?"

"The strongest one get's to keep it. Just take it from her. If you can, that is." Before he could even finish his sentence, the two had already started fighting over it.

Lumen smirked seeing that, and turned to the males. "Our room number is 44GF, we will gather there at 18:00."

The guys spread out and each went their own way. While two Princesses continued to fight with Tiana observing them to the side. She didn't know which number is their room, and they hadn't set up a time to meet there. Tiana was forced to sit there and watch the two monsters fighting.

The first level of the Ursala was filled with bars and casinos. Finding nothing of interest, Lumen moved on to the second level.

There were so many restaurants there, that he didn't know which to choose. Picking a random one, he entered inside and ordered some food. Compared to the 3rd Floor, the food was somewhat lacking, but it was for free after all.

After leaving the restaurant, he continued exploring the ship, until a woman in a green dress that reached her knees, stopped him. The woman had green hair and green eyes and was a head taller than him.

"Hiya there~ I'm Orange, an Administrator of the Floor." She cheerfully greeted him.

"Orange?" Lumen questioned with a small laugh.

"Yep~ Like the dress I wear." Orange twirled around, showing off her 'orange' dress. "Either way, Dan said he'd like to meet you."

"The Ruler of the Floor?" Lumen clearly saw he was interested in him but didn't expect this.

"Yep~ Dan invited you to his personal level! Very few Regulars get invited there. Come with me and I will bring you there." Hearing her, Lumen got his guard up. Something wasn't right here.

"Don't worry~ Dan means you no harm. Otherwise, he wouldn't have sent me, but Green. Green will bring you to him in pieces." Orange comforted him.

"Is Green the big bear?" Lumen question her.

"No~ Green is a girl that only wears green clothes, and has green hair." Orange cheerfully explained. Not wasting any more time, she snapped her fingers and the two disappeared from there.