Eden

『Chronicles of the Blood Tower』

"Ugh…"

Rasmus let out a moan when he stepped out of the portal hearing the weird voices in his head. He gripped his head lightly and shook his hair around. As he dismissed the pain from the short headache, he opened his eyes and turned his gaze outside the secluded alley he had stepped into.

'Woah…'

Although Rasmus had formed his resolve to not treat this like an amusement park with all the new stimulations of magic and seeing other people for the first time in several years, he could not help but be slightly amazed at the scenery before him.

The road he could see was paved with brownish-red bricks with several pairs of feet either levitating, walking, running or flying around on it. There weren't any cars or automobiles in the Tower, unlike his experiences on Earth. But, there were several embroidered carriages moving about, what seemed to be witches flying around on brooms, and wyverns carrying their parties in the skies.

Not to mention the interesting magical shops and flying islands in the sky, Rasmus was thoroughly impressed. It was like a medieval landscape that met with magic and creatures from stories to create the city of Eden that lay before him.

"Freshly baked bread! Here, Here! Only 3 low grade mana crystals for a loaf!"

"Get your daily paper here! The Eden Oracle is on sale today with latest news about the upcoming Floor Test and promising regulars making their debut!"

"Runic Fortune telling over here! Get your future read for only 20 Low grade mana crystals!"

Rasmus looked at the several shop employees running around shouting their business ads to the crowded street. If anything, he felt a sense of relief. The relief that it seemed like the Tower more or less, had a familiar culture to one he could reference to the history of Earth.

Rasmus checked to make sure he had everything in his spatial pocket and all his belongings including his spear with him, and moved out of the alley, out into the openly crowded street.

Thud.

"Watch where you're going idiot!", a large man bumped Rasmus' shoulder with a firm strength.

Rasmus wasn't pushed over however, and stood his ground. He moved his gaze up to the man's face and glared.

"Oi brat, I don't have time for your shit. If you wanna take this-" the man was cut-off shortly.

Rasmus deployed a surging killing intent with his glare that roused up his mana to amplify it.

Several pairs of feet halted in place and looked at the two, as the killing intent Rasmus was emitting was clearly not your average aspiring regular's. The man widened his eyes and sweat trickled down his forehead.

"Uh…. sorry bout that, I'll just …. Be on my.. Way…" The man spoke quivering, turned around and bolted into the crowd running away from Rasmus.

The people who gave a glance earlier, returned their gazes back to resume their business, like occurrences like this were mildly occasional.

'Ugh, I'm an idiot. Almost gained a lot of unwanted attraction. I need to learn how to conceal my mana better and not let it ooze out like that in the future.', Rasmus berated himself and moved back into the slipstream of wandering tourists.

As he walked through the streets, he examined some of the interactions of the people buying products from the vendors to learn the currency better. He had a bag full of what seemed to be mana crystals as they looked somewhat familiar to the crystals being handed between the seller and the buyer.

Rasmus approached a nearby boy shouting out to the crowd advertising his merchandise. The reason Rasmus approached this boy was because of a few things, but the most important was that this boy was selling a paper that seemed to give the daily news, so Rasmus deducted this boy would be able to give him some basic information.

"Hey, I was wondering if you could tell me a bit more about this place…", Rasmus spoke politely to the younger boy with brown hair and freckles.

He could sense this boy didn't have a shred of mana inside of him and figured he might have some circumstances that he didn't know of.

They boy looked up and gave Rasmus a scan of his clothes.

"Of course sir, Hehe! What do you need? We sell copies of the City Papers, including ones from different towns and-", The boy was about to continue speaking in his jovial merchant routine when Rasmus cut him off.

"I need you to help me verify the contents of this bag", Rasmus opened up a tear in the space and pulled out the bag from the spatial pocket.

The boy gave out a look of shock as he saw the spatial magic. On the trial floor, having knowledge of spatial magic was almost unheard of among the aspiring regulars to be. And spatial pockets were only accessible to those who came from wealthy families, like the 9 great families in the Tower.

Rasmus gave a double take at the boy and realized he made the right choice in his words and manner of speech when approaching him. He opened up the bag giving a glance to see if anybody was looking over to his contents but everyone seemed rather busy which was a good thing.

As he lowered the bag in front of the boy for him to inspect the contents the boy's eyes widened in shock.

"High grade mana crystals...and so many of them…" he muttered, then reclaimed his composure.

"If this kind sir would be so polite as to follow me to proceed to a private room I will be more than happy to help you!" the boy said with a glint of deceit in his eye.

Rasmus picked up on it as he had seen many people with those kinds of eyes back on Earth. However, he looked to the building the boy was leading him to and couldn't feel anybody with a stronger presence of mana than him inside so he gave a smirk and spoke,

"Of course, lead the way please."

The boy gave out a bright smile and thought he was dealing with a complete pushover and turned while speaking,

"Right this way then!"

Rasmus followed the boy into the small commercial building and when the doors opened he saw a lot of interesting machines working without any kind of physical support. They reminded him of printing presses back on Earth but saw multiple circles giving a faint glow and realized those must be magic circles like the ones on his gloves.

The freckled boy led Rasmus into a small side room marked with a VIP golden nameplate on the top of the door and led him inside.

Rasmus gave a quick double check to sense the mana presence behind the door and felt the presence of a rather strong fluctuation of mana, but it was less than half the amount Rasmus had.

Nonetheless, he walked inside and restored his expression to a stoic one, as he knew a poker face was the most important one to have when dealing with merchants or loan sharks.

Inside, there was simple yet, luxurious furniture decorated with several glass encasings of what seemed to be monster parts and jewels. At the back of the small room was a white, plump man sitting behind a desk. He had a small goatee that accentuated his merchant look as he wore a small monocle on his right eye. The man raised his eyebrows and glanced once at Rasmus before looking at the small boy.

The small boy then spoke up in a meek voice,

"Master Follum, I've brought a customer in to acquire some information that he needs. He seems to have great influence so I brought him to the master.", he spoke while bowing his head down at a ninety degree angle.

The plump man waved his hand and the boy raised his head quickly and walked out the room nervously.

Rasmus could pretty much tell at a glance what kind of position the man held and the boy from the exchange.

"Hello there dear customer, My name is Herbert Follum, the head of the Human Resources department and VIP guest services here at Lundbeth Press.", The man smiled and his eyes folded upwards forming crescents.

"My name is Rasmus Trostas, I came to verify some of my belongings' contents if that's not too much to trouble you." Rasmus, spoke flatly, nodding his head slightly to greet the man.

The man widened his eyes at Rasmus when he heard the name but quickly regained his composure. Rasmus didn't miss the change in expression and sat down nervously in the chair opposite the man behind the desk.

"Ah! It's an utmost honor to have one of the Trostas Family, come visit our humble and petty business! I will do my best to serve you accordingly!", the man spoke bowing his head politely to Rasmus.

Rasmus kept his poker face, but inwardly was a bit shocked at the man's sudden change in behavior to one that would be treating royalty. He then took out the bag of mana crystals Mathis had given him and decided to take out the dragon bone spear as well to not be suspicious as to why someone would need a currency to be verified.

Herbert Follum slicked back his greasy hair and looked into the bag and started to take out the crystals one by one and counted them out for him. He took a piece of parchment and wrote down the total amount. He then shifted his eyes over to the dragon bone spear and furrowed his brows and looked back to Rasmus.

"Hmmm.. There are exactly 50 High grade mana crystals here, but I can't identify the contents this… spear is made from. If you allow me to use a skill here with my artifact however, I can most likely identify it for you.", Herbert spoke calmly and pointed to his monocle resting on the bridge of his nose over his right eye.

Rasmus pondered whether it would be a good idea if this man would be able to identify the spear or not, but decided it might be too risky and decided to shift topic as naturally as he could.

"How are the exchange rates these days?", he asked inquisitively to Herbert.

Herbert looked at Rasmus in a bit of confusion and replied, "same as always sir, 100 to 1 each grade you go up. Why is there a problem I should be aware of?"

"No need thank you for your services, ah and are you able to convert some of these for me? 25 high grades to 2,500 mid grade? You can take 10 out of the mid grade as compensation.", Rasmus responded cooly.

However, Herbert made an expression like he had met an angel.

"Of course sir! Thank you very much for this payment to one as lowly as I!", Herbert exclaimed, bowing his head once more.

Rasmus looked at him thinking that he might have just ripped himself off here, but nonetheless he got what he needed here, albeit it being a bit troublesome.

"Allow me to excuse myself and bring the payment here.", Herbert nodded to Rasmus and moved himself to walk out the door and came back in after a few minutes of waiting.

"Here you are sir, I have your 25 High Grade crystals in your original bag, and 2,490 mid grade in this spatial pocket." Herbert spoke.

Rasmus took the bags back and surged a bit of his mana to inspect the contents, and after verifying it was all there, he nodded to Herbert and spoke, "Thank you for your service one last thing before I go, do you recommend any places around the area to stay before the upcoming test?"

"Sir, are you possibly taking the test?",Herbert asked in a bit of confusion as he had felt Rasmus' mana pool and was surprised that someone who had this much mana was taking the Trial Floor test, even if it was a descendant of the 9 Great Families.

"Of course… I don't think that was what I asked for however.", Rasmus responded with a bit of agitation as he wanted to get out of the Commercial building as soon as possible to not leave any loose ends as he was completely lacking in knowledge.

"Ah, I'm terribly sorry sir!" Herbert this time got on his knees like a servant waiting to be whipped and apologized profusely to Rasmus.

Rasmus once again was confused and quite honestly a bit disgusted with the man's brown-nosing behavior.

"The places?", he asked impatiently.

"Ah! I recommend that you either check 'The Fishbowl' or 'Melody's Sweet Paradise' sir!", Herbert quickly rose trying to regain his composure.

" I see, please include a map that I can use if possible.", Rasmus said, almost sighing at the end of the sentence with grievance.

Herbert later got the map and showed Rasmus the directions he would need to navigate around the city of Eden and properly escorted him out of the building.

As Herbert returned back into the building he called the boy who had led Rasmus to the building initially,

"Theodore come here immediately!", He shouted.

"Ye- Yes sir!", the boy came rushing back into the VIP room stammering and bowed his head to Herbert with respect.

"Contact our connections with the branch of the Trostas family immediately and search if there are any new challengers aspiring to be regulars under the name of Rasmus Trostas…" Herbert, said in a grave tone narrowing his eyes as he looked out the window at the bustling street.

'Something was definitely off about that man… Rasmus is it? We need to find out who he really is…', Herbert thought to himself with a skeptical look in his eye behind the monocle, as he rubbed his beard as a habit to soothe his anxiety.

---

The lanterns of the business district in Eden illuminated the dark sky as night fell across the City of Eden. Rasmus had just finished shopping through some bookstores to find some books he might need for getting assimilated properly into the Tower.

In his hands he held two books, as he glanced down at their titles with a smug grin on his face. 'Mana Cultivation Theory written by Forseus Dantec' and 'Tales of the Nine Great Sovereigns written by Mary Willeck'.

Rasmus was by no means, an eager spender. He was incredibly picky and sorted out the books that would contain the most information he would need in every page, and skimmed through books that could give generic details when he was browsing around in the bookstores.

Rasmus had a satisfied smile as he was happy with his purchases and looked at the map he had been given by Herbert earlier in the day. He frowned as he remembered the experience he had with the boy who had led him to Herbert, who was even more detestable. He tried not to think too much about his past memories as the expressions of the boy and Herbert reminded him too much of his dark past on Earth.

He slowly exited the business district and started walking along the substreets of the Housing districts. He was more or less expecting that Herbert would probably recommend an inn that was incredibly high-end as he was a little thrifty with his spending at the commercial building. Rasmus looked up at the sign for the inn he headed towards and was surprised that Herbert actually seemed to have recommended something rather lowkey and humble.

"Melody's Sweet Paradise huh? Not bad…" Rasmus mumbled to himself as he opened the wooden door leading to the entrance of the inn.

As he walked inside, he saw the first floor was a rather empty bar that seemed to be closing up soon, with one or two people sitting alone drinking by themselves quietly. He looked to the bartender who was cleaning an empty mug that gave off a thick scent of liquor. The woman who was cleaning the mug turned to face Rasmus as the bell jingled at the door when he walked in.

The woman who looked at Rasmus was a seemingly humble, hard-working mother type based on her looks, as she had a few marks of aging across her cheeks but nevertheless had fair skin and bright, ruby red hair.

"What can I get for ya?", the woman spoke up first to Rasmus in a coarse and rough manner of speech.

Rasmus rather welcomed the feeling, and replied to her, "I'd like to get a single room for the fortnight if possible, I'm willing to pay the dues and fees for the stay even if it's a bit higher priced than normal."

At the reply the woman gave a hearty grin and said, "Well you've come to the right place! It'll be 20 low grade crystals for the fortnight, 30 if ya want meals included."

Rasmus nodded in reply and took out a pouch and extracted 30 mana crystals from it and handed it over to the woman.

The woman looked inside to count the amount and then turned around to fetch a room key and handed it over to him.

"You'll be on the third floor, room 38. Are you taking part in the Floor Test coming up by any chance?", she asked him carefully to examine his expression.

"Yes, why do you ask?", Rasmus responded.

"Well, you look pretty dandy and all with that nice equipment, but I've seen several people go out and lose their lives thinking they'll be fine relying on their equipment and skills without any proper field experience.", she said with a serious expression.

Rasmus couldn't understand why this woman was giving him this advice. He understood that sure, it was necessary advice for new people and he had plenty of combat experience. But, why would some innkeeper care about his life?

"I'll keep that in mind." Rasmus bowed and nodded his head respectfully to her concerns.

"Well, it wouldn't be such a bad idea to go out and train in the huntin' areas around the outskirts of the city if ya needa level up, but I think you got the point already." she grumbled with a frown still etched on her face and turned away.

Rasmus' interest was naturally piqued at the terms 'level up' and 'hunting around the outskirts'.

"I see, well, I might have to trouble you tomorrow in the morning about where the best hunting spots are." Rasmus reciprocated the advice with gratefulness and turned away to head up the stairs.

As he was making his way up the stairs the woman's voice called out, "Name's Melody, what's yours kid?"

Rasmus stopped his steps for a moment and turned his head a bit to reply, "Rasmus."

He smiled faintly and headed up to his room.

When he opened up the room, he saw a simple bed with plain sheets and an empty desk, completely spotless and free of dust. It was a humble accommodation, just how he liked it. He smiled and patted the sheets down reminiscing of the last time he actually slept on a mattress.

'It's been a while…', Rasmus thought to himself as he laid down on the bed and looked out the window where the artificial sky and stars lay scattered above. He hadn't had a bed, good food, or even a night sky to look at for quite some time and felt a bit happy. But, soon after that, a feeling of loneliness and regret came in.

Rasmus shook his head and narrowed his eyes.

'Can't get complacent here, or it'll be the death of me', he thought to himself and took out the two books he had bought earlier.

He cracked open the first book 'Mana Cultivation Theory' with a determined look in his eyes and started to delve into the book as he mentally prepared himself for the unknown that lay beyond the depths of the Tower.

---

Later that evening in the dark corridors below the Tower, where Rasmus had met Mathis…

Mathis, The Guardian had a troubled expression on his face.

[Two irregulars showing up in one week… This is unprecedented in the entire history of the Blood Tower… Forget one irregular showing up in a millennium, this is absolutely going to throw the wheel of fate of course…], Mathis muttered to himself, as he paced back and forth in the murky and dark pathway.

He turned around and waved his hand opening up a portal leading off to another floor in the higher sections.

'Hm, I can't let the other sneaky bastards get ahold of them… I'll have to contact some Floor Masters I've made some connections with to ensure both of their identities stay sealed for the time being… Rasmus Trostas… a descendant of the great family that was lost? Or is he Lenoah's little experiment she made, before being exiled and murdered? Hmmm.. and that other one… Gray Windsor… quite the troublesome set of teenagers.. Let's make sure they don't meet or it could be quite the disaster'

Chapter 8 - Fin