The First Day

The blinding light only lasted for an instant. Instinctively Roux had shut his eyes to protect himself from it. After his mind had calmed down he could feel a hard cold surface underneath him. Cautiously he opened his and was pleasantly surprised by what he saw. Roux was laying in a room with extremely high ceilings and a number of what appeared to be marble slabs almost 3 feet high and about 8 feet long. Some of these slabs had various people and creatures on them laying similar to how Roux was. He could see attendants at each slab tending to the occupants.

After glancing around briefly Roux had noticed a mostly human featured woman sitting near the upper part of the stone slab he was on.

"Please take your time before sitting up Sir. The transfer process can leave you feeling out of sorts." The woman explained slowly to Roux as he admired her. Roux guessed that she was in her mid 20's but with the crazy time dilution here as well as not knowing exactly what she was he couldn't be sure. She was wearing a deep forest green robe that complimented her figure. The woman's skin tone had a blue tint to it. She had dark brown hair that when she moved would give off a shimmer of green. What really stood out to Roux was her eyes. Instead of pupils they were cat like slits surrounded by golden irises that seemed to flow with a mind of their own.

Not paying much attention to Roux's reaction she continued her work on the side of the stone slab. She produced a thin sheet of glass about the size of a piece of paper. While holding out the sheet she asked politely, "If you could Sir, please place your hand on this."

Roux made no move to lift his arm or hand to comply at all. He just stared mesmerized by her eyes. They were that entrancing. Noticing that Roux had yet to move the woman waved her free hand in front of his eyes in an attempt to bring him back to reality.

"Ohh...uhhh.... I'm sorry what did you ask?" Roux could feel his cheeks burning red in embarrassment.

"It's no trouble. I just need to have you place your hand here." She brushed it off as if it were nothing but Roux was certain he could hear a hint of amusement in her tone.

Finally hearing the request Roux placed his hand on the glass. As soon as it was fully flat it began to illuminate itself with a yellow glow. This continued for almost 10 seconds before it abruptly went back to normal.

"Thank you. You may return to resting." She instructed. Roux intended to do just that. 'Look at the ceiling. Look at the ceiling. Look at the ceiling' he repeatedly instructed himself so as not to embarrass himself further. What a great first impression in a new world he must have made. Surely she thought he was nothing more than a country bumpkin now.

While Roux wallowed in his self loathing she deftly inserted the glass into the spot she had taken it from. A moment later a small card 4 inches by 3 inches printed out. The woman pulled it out and inspected it. She nodded her head and extended her arm out handing the card to Roux.

"Mr. Roux if you wouldn't mind taking this and if you can sit up, if you feel any dizziness or nausea please let me know. Now that identification is out of the way allow me to introduce myself. I am Mora. I am employed to help new transfers get proper identification as well as act as a tour guide for a brief time." Mora had taken up a more relaxed pose in her seat as Roux had slowly sat himself up.

Roux wasn't feeling any discomfort or sickness at all. He must have been lucky enough to avoid any side effects of the transition. "I'm not feeling any different than I was before coming here" Roux informed Mora.

Mora smiled and nodded knowingly, "Most times when people feel sick it's due to the body modification process that can be undergone when transferring, the more you change the harder the process is. If you would take a second to inspect your identification card I can go over everything on it."

Roux immediately was glad that he didn't go wild with making himself someone he wasn't. As he glanced down at the card in his hand he was reminded of his driver's license from back home. It had a snapshot picture of him in one corner and next to that was 'Roux'. The information that really stood out to him nearly made him cry.

5'11" (+1)

No this was a nightmare. It openly admitted he was still not 6 foot tall and that he had chosen to add an inch. Worst part is this beautiful woman definitely saw it. It's official he was ready to find the nearest body of water and drown himself in it.

Reluctantly Roux decided to continue.

Roux

Level : 1

Floor : N/A

Human

Age: 21

Gender: Male

5'11"(+1")

Occupation : None

Class : None

As Roux flipped the card over he saw a new set of stats. With a small square next to them.

Strength : 10

Agility : 12

Intelligence: 8

Charisma: 8

Luck : 5

Roux was pretty sure he was as average as someone could be. "Mora, what is this small box for?" Roux figured he would take advantage of her presence instead of trying to guess.

This question seemed to surprise Mora. "That is similar to the hand scan you just did but it only updates things that are on the card it won't be able to tell you physical features or change your picture."

"Oh that makes sense. Does everyone here speak English like you do?" This had been bothering Roux since he arrived. He had heard others talking and understood it all but some of them were very clearly not humans.

Mora's face was a little confused. "I'm not sure what English is entirely but in regards to the language barriers. The Infinite Tower translates all languages to one. I am speaking a dialect of my worlds Fae language if that helps you understand a little."

So that's why she's so unique. A Faerie. How freaking cool is that! Roux wanted to ask her a million questions but did his best to contain his excitement.

Seeing that Roux hadn't asked anything further she stood up stepping closer to Roux and extending her hand "if you're feeling okay and there isn't anything else you were curious to know then let me give you a quick tour."

Roux reached out and took her hand skidding his butt off of the stone slab and placing his feet on the floor for the first time. As he stood up he realized just how much shorter Mora was. She couldn't have been more than 5' tall and Roux felt that his extra 1 inch wasn't needed with a woman like her.

As if guessing what Roux had thought she slyly remarked "Just a little bit taller than I'm used to." While she made this comment she has a mischievous smile on her face. This causes Roux to feel extremely embarrassed since he knew that she had seen the ID card.

With that she had released Roux's hand and gestured for him to follow her. As they walked away a young man had promptly come up and taken Mora's spot to wait for the next arrival.

Walking thru the rows of slabs was like a dream. He had seen humans of course, lizard-men, cat people both male and female, as well as things he couldn't even describe. It seemed all types of species and creatures were gathering at the Infinite Tower.

After exiting the room they headed into a hallway with only a single direction. They continued walking straight for more than 2 minutes before Roux could see the door at the end. As they approached it Mora seemed to quicken her pace in excitement. Upon arrival she turned to Roux and asked, "are you ready?" Ready? For what? He had no idea but he could see how giddy Mora was. "Yes" was all Roux decided to reply with. He had already come this far so even if he wasn't ready for what was behind the door would it matter?

Mora gave Roux a huge grin and slowly opened the door while backing herself to the side. Roux stepped forward to see a huge made almost entirely out of glass. There were tons of bodies coming and going in front of him almost all being led or talked to by someone else just like he was. He noticed almost all of them had their eyes focused in the same direction in reverence.

That's when Roux saw it. By following the eyes of everyone else the most massive structure in the distance. Between him and that structure must have been 100 other buildings of various sizes but not even one was worth mentioning.

That was the Infinite Tower. The reason that he was even here in the first place. Not a single cloud was in the sky yet he couldn't even tell if there was a top. It seemed to have a golden aura surrounding it as if it was made entirely of precious metals. He could clearly see that there were different layers of the tower. Each one designed and built with entirely different architecture. By all accounts from what he could see there was no way that it should be standing. It defied the laws of physics in multiple areas. That's not even bringing into account the weather factors that could effect it.

*hehehe*

Roux heard a muffled laughter from his left and turned his head to see Mora covering her mouth.

"I think you might need more than 1 inch to climb it but you at least got a head start" she squeezed out between giggles. With that she stepped forward leading Roux across the atrium towards a window.

"You've come to the City of Ineco. We're on the Northern outskirts of the Towers boundary. There are 4 tower cities. North is Ineco, South is Goria, East is Honmaa, west is Blicand." She explained while gazing longingly towards the tower. Mora took a few seconds before shaking her head slightly before she continued.

"Looking from here,as you may have seen, are a few buildings that are taller than the others. Those are what we call the 'big 3', they are the warrior, mage, and priest class buildings." She took her time pointing out 3 very different buildings.

The warrior building looked very coliseum like made of solid slabs of stone. Strong and sturdy with thick walls. More barbaric then most of the other buildings around. It had a dome for a roof made entirely of what Roux hopes were animal skins.

The mage building was by far the most spectacular of the three. It was a small central obelisk with a crystal on top with what appeared to be rope bridges tethering smaller floating rooms randomly off of the entirety of the building. They seemed to shift and sway with the wind as he watched them.

The priest class building was the least impressive of the three to Roux although it was grand in its own right. It looked like a large cathedral with beautiful windows and bell towers. In the center of the building was a statue of a figure with 6 arms and no facial features kneeling towards the tower in prayer.

"Are those my only choices for classes? None of them really jump out as my kind of style." Roux had never really liked playing as any of those types of characters when he had played video games when he was younger. They were far too generic and boring.

After he had asked this he had noticed that Mora turned away from the tower and towards him for the first time since they entered the atrium. "I knew I liked you for some reason" she had said thru a childish smile. "There are more classes than I can name. Like I said they are only the big 3. If you're motivated and creative enough it wouldn't be impossible to create you own just be prepared for a serious struggle." With this she turned towards the windows once more but looked at the city instead of the tower "a large number of buildings before you belong to the other classes, some are much harder to find and may take some luck, and you can always pick a class and learn another as a subclass if you find the time."

Roux breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this. He still had no idea what he wanted to do in the future and wasn't ready to make such a long term choice just yet.

"Moving on!" Stated Mora startling Roux out of his thoughts. They began walking thru the building and Mora stopped in front of what appeared to be the doors to the city. "I know this has been short but I'm not here to baby you. If you say or think 'inventory' a list of things in your personal storage space should appear in your vision. You'll notice that there are 10 silver coins and some food and water. This is a gift from the tower and probably the only free handout you'll ever get around here."

Roux immediately thought the word and saw a list appear. 10 silver coins, bread x3, water jug. Looking at the ID card in his hand it seemed to turn into a mirage before appearing on the list of things in his inventory. 'Well that's convenient' he thought to himself.

Looking back at Mora he said his thanks and prepared to walk out of the door.

"Wait." Before he had made it two steps Mora had stopped him. Looking back at her he saw her reach out her hand. It was holding her own ID card. "Just so you know you're not alone." She said meekly. For the first time she seemed like she was shy.

Mora Rai

Level : 58

Floor : 43

Faerie/Elf

Age : 118

Gender : Female

Height : 3' (+2')

Occupation : transfer specialist

Class : illusionist (subclass : assassin)

Roux looked up a little surprised. After all the jokes she had made at his expense today she had added 2 full feet to her height! How could she do this to him! He was getting ready to let her have a real piece of his mind when he noticed she was slowly fading away. He could see straight thru her at this point. "See you on the climb!" Was all she said before disappearing completely leaving Roux standing there with so many new questions and obscenities he wanted to throw at her.

Having no target for his annoyance he turned and walked out of the door into the city of Ineco.