1 cold wakeup call

He felt how his body loosen and collapsed. It was freezing cold! That damned ice knight had frozen him into a block! How long had he been frozen?

He looked around. He was in a dense forest, but his senses told him that the seemingly endless forest was inside something with very thick walls.

He looked at his big Katar. The blade was two times the width of his fist and very heavy with weird incantations, the hilt didn't just go up to his wrist but to the elbow and the power crystal in his palm at the middle of the hilt was a bit damaged. He wouldn't be able to channel his spiritual energy properly.

Thanks to his mother he was able to survive a while without food and thanks to his father he could basically eat anything. Good enough.

He walked around for a while to get his muscles warm and his clothes dry. The green hood that covered his upper body hang down like a big leaf and the green pants and boots were soaking wet. His thick, brown hair hung into his brown and green eyes with the white dot in the middle of the pupil, and his pale skin seemed white in the shadows of the trees.

The trees were so high that he didn't know if there was a sun above them or not.

He pulled out his Katars sheath from one of his inter spatial pockets and put the Katar away. It was mostly useless right now. Instead, he used a dagger that was running on his soul energy. It would also do the job.

He got himself a few fruits and after he had eaten, he climbed up one of the biggest trees he could find. When he reached the top, he saw a bright blue sky and the sun. And of course the dense forest. With his pointy ears, he could hear quite well. Judging by the sound, most animals were rather big and calm in the daytime.

Just as he was about to climb down, he remembered that the fight with the ice knight had injured him quite seriously. But when he looked, he couldn't find the wounds. How came they were healed?

„Come on, Merl, stop worrying about it. You got enough revenge…" he scolded himself.

He checked his devices and searched for signals. Luckily, the visual and rarely phonetic system was still working. He was very far west… The western lands? High up… in a tower…

Did he remember anything about a tower? Some demons had said that the humans of the far west had build a tower to test all kinds of things, and they would catch beasts and demons for it, but also bring homeless people there to create the population of the tower… The tower of trials.

Merl groaned. The ice of the ice knight needed a lot of time to melt, and he was far away from home… Would he be able to contact his king or anyone else?

After a short while of testing, he found out that he was alone. Fortunately, another general of the king had already explored parts of the tower, to satisfy the desire of knowledge of the king.

He used the system to sharpen his senses and found in the distance signs of life. No matter what it was, he would be able to deal with it.

He jumped from tree to tree and quickly came closer to the life signal. The system used its pings to scan the area and collect data to create a map for him.

Since he hadn't moved in a long time, he was quickly exhausted.

„Merl, it seems you have to train again… Cold muscles will make it harder to move. But if you stand still, the system will scan a bit quicker… At least some progress."

He stretched like a cat while he waited for his stamina to recover and the system helped him remember a breathing technique his mother had taught him. It would be easier to move if he used it and he would also be able to move faster.

The scan told him that the entities he had found were quite numerous and emitting heat. They were either machines made by the gnomes or some other kind of race.

Humans could be quite stupid, so they classified elves, gnomes, giants and fairies as monsters, not as their own races though they had every right to be seen as those, just like the beasts and the undead thingies that still existed. But since they all had the moon in their eyes, it didn't count.

Demons didn't emit heat for some reason, just like undead beings. And he really doubted that he would find immortals or deities in this tower, so those entities had to be something else.

He came closer to the entities. It seemed to be a small raid group.

The colleague that had explored the tower had found that depending on the trial you were doing, you would wear a different badge at the left side of your chest, over the heart. People from different trials couldn't directly hurt each other, but those who didn't have such a classification could, which meant the people of the tower and its beings.

Raid groups were in the tower for competitions, so their badge was a sack with gold.

He was mainly right handed, so the slit of his hood was on the right side to make moving easier and covered the left side. He checked if he had a badge.

He indeed had. It was a golden crown with a scale engraved on it. What kind of trial was that supposed to be??

„Merl, no matter what, you will survive. Mom and Dad are surely free from their ice prison and you were strong enough to impress the supreme king. Merl can do it!"

He hit himself on the chest - and hit the badge. He frowned and grinned in pain. He really had to remember those things…!

He came a bit closer and saw that the raid group was pretty beaten up and bloody. They were humans and talked in the southern accent. They didn't look too strong. And they were loud.

He landed unnoticed in the group.

„Hello." He said with a charming smile.

They immediately drew their weapons and pointed them at him.

He rubbed his chin. This really wasn't the best course of action he could've taken. Should he do something? He ended up doing nothing and getting tied up by the group. They did a pretty bad job, probably because they were exhausted.

He waited for a while, just observing everything, and got from their conversation that they were currently on the biggest floor, the eternal elven forest. They came from an arena floor. The entire floor was an arena in which you had to fight other teams.

He decided that those people were boring and was just about to stand up when suddenly an explosion brought a huge tree to fall. He got up, spread his arms to shake the rope of and leisurely walked away while the raid group was panicking and being crushed by the tree.

He took a look at the cause for the meat pancakes.

There stood a tall, slim youth in a black robe. His skin was snow white, his hair pitch black, falling in wide curls over his shoulders and he carried a silvern scythe in his left hand.

The two males stared at each other.

„Who are you?" The voice of the youth in black was deep and sounded like it was drenched in ice cold water. It send shivers down the spine of the other youth, together with a strange, faint memory.

„Merlimont. And you?"

„Kuren."

Merl carefully approached Kuren. Kuren was taller than him, just a small bit, and he had ice blue dots in the ink black iris of his eyes. In the pupil was a small, bleary, white dot, called a moon. It looked quite strange. He didn't have any warmth in his body and almost looked like he was dead.

His face was handsome but indifferent and somewhat aloof and stern.

„I have never seen you here before."

„Well, I just woke up."

„Woke up?" Kurens eyes slightly narrowed.

Merl sighed. „I would show you if I could. I was a frozen brick for who knows how long and just got out of it today. Oh, hey, we have the same badge." He moved his hood away.

Kuren tilted his head a bit, apparently still in thought.

Merl waited patiently.

„Since we are from the same trial, we should team up." Said Kuren finally.

„Okay." He liked company.

„Does your name have a shorter form?"

„Merl."

„Good."

„Uh, how should I call you?"

„Just Kuren."

Merl nodded with a smile.

„You…"

„What is it?"

„You know that I am an undead, do you?"

„Thank you for confirming my guess."

„Then don't you want to run away?"

„Have you taken a closer look at me? Why would I run from you?"

Kuren dropped the subject. Merl guessed that everything was now explained and followed him.

„What exactly did you mean with „woke up"?" Asked Kuren again. Didn't he listen? Maybe his thoughts were a bit absent at that moment… Not that anyone would be able to notice.

„I was frozen and the ice melted just today."

„And you were brought here when…?"

„I don't know. I just know that I was frozen, then brought here."

„So you must've been here longer than I which would be why I didn't sense you…"

Merl just shrugged. Frankly, he didn't care. He was only happy that he wasn't alone and that Kuren didn't seem to mind his talk active, awfully cheerful nature too much.

„Why did you kill that raid group?"

„There was a crystal in the tree."

„And you needed the crystal. The raid group just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time?" Guessed Merl.

„Mhm."

„How long have you been on this floor? Or in the tower?"

„I don't know."

„Then is the way time exists and moves here different from outside?"

„… Mhm."

„Oh. That dosen't only mean that there is a time difference between inside the tower and outside, but also that time can wrap, or one might be caught in a time loop… right?"

„Yes."

Merl sighed. That really wasn't good. The system gave him a notification.

„There are four beasts in this forest." He said.

Kuren looked at him, signaling that he was listening.

„The one north is the biggest, the one west is apparently a fat blob of some kind, the one south is the smallest and the one east looks like a snake."

„How do you know?"

„I have a system in my mind that helps me. It's a bit weird…"

„Like a voice?"

„No, maps and text, also models, scans and such. Only I can see those text fields and what the system shows me."

„Hm. I have something similar."

„A voice that comments on everything?"

„Yes."

„How annoying. Can it go away? I alone am enough of a voice that comments on everything… Especially since you'll be stuck with me for a while. I need company!"

Kuren smiled for a short moment.

„My guess is that we have to slay the beasts to get to the next floor…"

„Yes."

„Then where do we go first? Most would think the bigger the stronger and keep it for last, but I think the smallest one is stronger so we should do it first."

„Okay."

„Uh… South is that way."

„…"