Killing their way to the top (1)

It was as though now, they had gotten permission to move up the tower, the next set of stairs appeared on their own. Ed only paused for a moment, and the next second Ku Jian was running out the door. He did not bother to glance at her, as he started toward the next level.

This time, there was no continuing flight of stairs after the first one. They immediately found themselves facing a dead end. They looked back and found nothing behind them.

"Get your slot cards," a bored voice said and they found a boy almost asleep with a bell in his hands. He rang a few times as his head drooped.

"What floor is this?" Nti Anem asked.

The boy looked up at those who were walking before him and froze.

"The.. there is no floor on this level," he said and Nti Anem frowned.

"There is no level from the fourth floor. We are on the second floor," he said and the boy shivered under his cold stare.

"This is the fourth floor," the boy answered. At this, Nti Anem nodded…

"Ah.. that old thing must have learned his lesson and sent you directly to the fourth floor," he said.

"What are the rules," Ed asked the boy and he trembled, even more, causing Ed to frown.

"Why are you trembling?" Ku Jian asked the boy.

"No..nothing,"

"Have you seen us before?" she asked.

"No,"

"Stop trembling," she said.

"Okay!" the boy shook even more.

"I will kill you if you don't start talking," Ku Jian said.

"The-curators-all-know-your-faces.a-rankless,an-observer-and-blood-queen.we-are-to-becareful-when-we-see-you," he said in one breath.

"Slowly," her eyes turned cold.

"The curators all know your faces. A rankless, an observer and blood queen. We are to be careful when we see you," he took in a deep breath and said.

"Blood queen?" Nti Anem raised a brow at Ku Jian, only to meet her innocent face staring at Ed without care.

"The rules of the level," Ed asked again.

"Defeat enough people to enter the golden ranking. Then you can choose to cash in the benefits of that rank or proceed to the next level," he said.

"The cards," Nti Anem said and the boy worked fast and handed them their cards. Looking at it, they found that it was different from the last time. It was not just a blank card with their name on it, it now had the number zero on it.

"It represents the number of people you have defeated in the level. The colour represents the rank you are in. There are grey, red, yellow, orange, gold, gold being the highest and grey the lowest," the boy explained. At his words, Ed understood one thing; he was the only one who could not see colour in this world. Every other except for the old man from the library, could. What that represented, he did not know.

He looked down at his card and all he saw was black. He assumed it was because of his inability to see colour in this world, but was told otherwise by the boy, who had seen him stare at his card and thought to explain.

"You are rankless. Your card is black. I do not know how this will work inside the level, but the tower will know how to handle you," he said and Nti Anem raised a brow.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"You will know when you step in. This level is not like those below," the boy said, "Oh and be careful, time is odd there," At this, Nti Anem and the rest walked past him and stepped through a large doorway.

As though they had torn through a veil, they immediately found themselves in the middle of a battle standoff.