Love Tokens

A strange and unexpected wave pushed most of the climbers back as Adonisa appeared on the scene. Her presence enforced an authority that had not been seen before in the tower.

As her voice spread out to reach everyone's ears, instantly, the ruckus halted while the climbers who had been blown away by her mana struggled to regain themselves.

Adonisa looked around, her gaze selectively focused on the few climbers that managed to withstand the wave of mana she released and nodded her head before letting out a boisterous laugh.

"Fascinating! Fascinating! Fascinating!" she shouted, her voice being the complete opposite of the soft-spoken one the climbers had heard earlier on. "I see there are strong youngsters this time, eh?!"

Adonisa approached forward a few steps; her long black hair, which reached a bit below her buttocks, swayed elegantly as she moved her hips in a practice catwalk until she reached what appeared to be a small elevation in the hall.

"So you all want to reach the top of the tower and yet cannot withstand my mana wave, hahaha! I have bad news for you. There are worse people than me in this place. Tell me… how are you going to deal with that if a mere breeze can hold you up?"

Daniel, Kastro, Rykar, Ravan, Cody and the red-haired woman didn't bother or show any concern about her haunting words because they, somehow, remained standing after the wave dispersed.

Daniel cast his eyes on the younger climber, Rykar. 'He withstood it. Seems he's more resourceful than his size lets on.

Rykar, on the other hand, had hung on with everything in him just to stand throughout the process. 'I can't fail here. Not on the first floor! I can't… I have to save my sister!"

Tears gathered in his eyes but Rykar didn't let a single drop fall as he took his emotional pain like the man that he was and remained steadfast, looking ahead to the one that held the key to them progressing to the next floor — Adonisa.

'Tch! You are in luck, bastard!' Kastro sneered in his heart as he watched Daniel with malevolent eyes, still very begrudged towards him for embarrassing him before his lickspittles.

Kastro looked around, noticing for the first time that his entire lackeydom had been completely crushed after Adonisa's mana wave. Rage pulsed through his veins even more as all his hard work since arriving in the hall was now for nothing.

"Lor… Lord Kas… tro…! All… hail the Crim… son…" Joren mumbled in his disoriented state, barely clinging to the conscious realm as foams seeped from his mouth before he finally slipped into unconsciousness.

Vaan had been knocked out by Daniel and Anat was on the floor next to Joren, completely out cold. Such was the fate of every other person who was his servile lap dog.

'If not for this bastard…!' Kastro continued to curse Daniel, nerve nearly bursting from his head and hand as he clenched the hilt of his sword ever so tightly.

"Interesting…! That's some fearsome aura, man!" Cody twirled his locks around his finger as he admired Adonisa from afar. "What do you think, Ravan?"

Ravan blinked a few times. "I just want to get some quality sleep," the bald climber complained. "Is that too much to ask?"

"Shut up, man! All your lazy ass knows is to sleep. Is that how we are gonna climb the tower!"

Ravan dug into his ear with his little finger, paying Cody no attention, which further annoyed him. "Too much noise."

********* 

Every one of the last climbers standing was now red with impatience and anger as they wondered what the aim of keeping them waiting for another half an hour was.

Adonisa cleared her throat, seeing that those who had fallen had regained some reasonable amount of consciousness, enough to hear and understand the simple message she was going to pass.

'She really kept us waiting for thirty minutes just for these guys to wake up,' Daniel thought as his body vibrated slightly from laughter.

"Listen up!" Adonisa yelled out, making sure all and sundry could hear her voice. "Now that you are all awake, I can make my announcement."

The ones who had recently woken up were crumbling and mumbling from the pangs of pain that came with their fall to the ground.

"Welcome to the first floor of Heaven's Tower, the Floor of Love. I am Adonisa, your host. A representative of God and a high priestess of Goddess Venus."

Adonisa walked around the round elevation of the hall, going around the climbers whom she had instructed to stand at the centre of the hall to listen to her.

"Now that you are here, you might as well relax…"

"Huh?" many of the climbers muttered in confusion.

"What is she saying?"

"I don't think she is the administrator even."

"Sshh! You brats! Not like you know any better…" Adonisa blasted them into silence. 

She then cleared her throat and continued, "Anyway, your next test will happen in fourteen days. So, go ahead and enjoy yourself on the Floor of Love as much as you can. In five days, you will take your test, the Heart's Labyrinth but until then, rest easy and enjoy the world of my goddess, Venus."

Ding–! Ding–! Ding–! Ding–!

Their notification blared, filling the room with instant sound as they looked at each other, wondering what was happening.

Adonisa crouched and lifted two fingers, her tongue sticking out between them. "You have just received two gifts from the gracious Goddess Venus, call them our love tokens as your host…"

"Love tokens…?"

"Do we get power-ups or what? That would be very nice if we did."

Daniel narrowed his eyes. He found it unusual that they would be given gifts by a deity of the tower out of the blues and for doing practically nothing. Surely, that was a good thing and a major boost for all of them at this early stage of their climbs. 

However, Daniel knew not to put his trust blindly in others.

'Surely, there has to be something attached to this,' Daniel thought as a single series of dings sounded in the hall.

'Seems like you have caught their eyes as well…' Daniel recalled the words of the rabbit down on floor zero. "What are these gods and goddesses playing at?"

"The first gift," Adonisa continued, "...is a token of 500 Divine Gems each?"

A round of jubilation resonated in the hall as murmuring began. Adonisa waited another while before interrupting them to reveal the second love token.

"Ahem…" the representative cleared her throat, "and the second gift from the goddess is…"