The breakfast had taken longer than expected, partially because Seungwoo went for seconds, and Si Long and Zhang decided to join them. They were enthusiastic, and when he inquired about why, they said that Si Long received a good Skill Seed from Aaron, amongst other things. Zhang also received some materials for a chest piece from Yoona, so they were quite satisfied with their performance.

After finishing their food, they had re-logged back onto the game. A bit more time had passed in here than in the original, and Seungwoo was a bit dissatisfied that he didn't log on sooner, but he remembered what Woo-jin said to him, so he could only sigh.

They talked about catching up with their lost time together during breakfast. Woo-jin apparently started a clothing company along with Yoona, which he was surprised to hear. They had talked about other things, but they got back on track soon after. Woo-jin told of him a Questline that gave them important materials for crafting a Divine weapon, which has a higher grade than Legendary weapons.

"Isn't it broken that they're giving us Divine weapons this early on?" Seungwoo recalled asking.

"No, each Floor has its own tier."

"I'm not getting you."

"For example, Skill Seeds." He replied, "The Skill Seed effects that we have right now on the first floor are pretty good. Some are better than others, such as ours, but our skill seed would be rendered ineffective as soon as we hit the next Floor of the World Tree."

"Because they won't be strong enough?"

"Exactly," Woo-jin replied, "Skill seeds might have unique effects, but as soon as you enter a higher floor, the game will manually reduce the effects of the Skill Seed because of the floor discrepancy. The higher you climb the Tree, the more items you obtain from previous floors become less and less impactful."

"That makes sense," He nodded, "Does that also apply with weapons?"

"Yes," Woo-jin nodded, "A divine weapon on the first floor might have unique and interesting effects, but as soon as we hit the next floor, a common or rare weapon found on the second floor might out damage the divine weapon on the first floor."

"So you're basically telling me we have to change our Skill Seeds and Equipment as soon as we reach the second floor."

"Yeah, that's right."

"That makes a lot of sense now," Seungwoo nodded, "What about our levels?"

"The level cap is level fifty," Woo-join explained, "But, once we hit the level cap, we can reset our levels to gain a Rebirth stack. We don't lose any of our obtained stats, but getting a Rebirth stack does a lot of things. It increases the cap of your Guiding Skill Tree, resets your level but not your stats, and lets you traverse higher floors. You lose a Rebirth stack when you die, instead of resetting back to square one."

"What stops people from just farming the first floor and rebirthing a lot of times?"

"Well, the Rebirth stack isn't additive exp, it's exponential," Woo-jin replied back, "After you get a Rebirth stack, you will find it very hard to farm to level fifty once again on the first floor. The mobs won't give enough EXP to do so, or it just might take way too long."

"So, at that point, it's just better to farm on the second floor."

"Exactly," Woo-jin pointed.

"What about the land acquisition?" 

"Hm?"

"Let's say you own a plot of land on the second floor," Seungwoo asked, "But you also own land on the first floor. How do you defend the land on the first floor, if your main focus is progressing higher and higher through the tower?"

"Well, you can always warp to territory inside your guild, regardless of the floor," Woo-jin said, "Besides, you could always bring Skill Seeds, weapons, and advancements in technology you find from higher floors back to the first floor to use. The game is designed to get easier for newer players as more people climb the Tower."

"Can you explain?"

"Let's say hypothetically, we were on the one-hundredth floor. That means, all the items, skill seeds, land costs, etc would still cost the same gold on the first floor, however, the value of the gold would be drastically different. It costs about 100,000 gold to claim land on the first floor, right? Mobs on the one-hundredth floor might drop 100,000 gold in a few minutes. Everything depreciates the lower the floor you go, and market fluctuation based on supply and demand might change it even more."

"Ah, so in your scenario, if I was a new player, I could just spend like ten or twenty dollars to get a shit ton of gold, or however much the conversion rate is during that time and breeze through the lower floors without batting an eye."

"Exactly!" Woo-jin clapped his hands, "The conversion rate from real currency to in-game assets will always reflect the latest current floor everyone has progressed to, so getting there first is an investment. You acquire land on the highest available floor, tax and conquer, and then invest on going to the next floor. Or, cash out and reap the reward of your work."

"Damn, that's smart."

"Alright, thought talk about the logistics of progression. We will get there when we get there. Let's log on as fast as possible since we gotta reclear the Fortress of Farseer to find the secret dungeon before doing anything else."

The reclear didn't take as long as Seungwoo thought it would. However, they did come prepared, stocking up on consumables and potions while going in. They were in and out within an hour or so, which was reassuring. He had gotten a decent amount of gold and some rare items, but nothing too special.

"Alright, we're gonna farm the upper region of this Floor," Zhang replied, "I hear there are some mining materials in the mountains to the north, so we're gonna explore around and check it out. I need to get my Blacksmithing up, too. Si-Long is going to work on Herbalism."

"Yep, catch you later," Woo-jin waved goodbye to Zhang and Si-Long.

After they had warped away, Seungwoo looked around. The commotion around him was surprisingly high. Their kingdom of Camelot was already being built at a rapid pace. They said Rome wasn't built in a day, but Camelot might've been with the looks of things. Yoona was commanding several people to finish building structures for her. NPCs flocked towards their borders, and each one was already putting in work building housing.

"Alright, follow my lead. We're gonna find you a better mode of transportation."

The stables were already built, so Woo-jin guided Seungwoo through the large city in development. After finding a trusty steed, he mounted on the horse and a notification popped up before him.

"Uh, no," He frowned.

"Wh-what?"

Did the system just ridicule him?

"Mine is named Arnold," Woo-jin patted his horse on the side.

"Just Arnold?" 

"What do you mean? Isn't Arnold a cool name?"

"Right..."

It took Seungwoo a couple of minutes to get acquainted with riding a horse, but they were moving through the terrain in a matter of seconds once he got the hang of it. Woo-jin was the first to lead, and he followed behind without any trouble. They passed several plains, a couple of meadows, and some more land before reaching their destination. Under different circumstances, he might've enjoyed the view. They had crossed some players clearing mobs while others were doing quests. It was bustling on the first day.

After about thirty minutes of travel, they reached the entrance of a soothing woodland path. It was mysterious but gentle, in a way. A lumberer was nearby, cutting down trees and putting them on his wagon. The forest wasn't too dense, so the sunlight cascaded to the bottom in a myriad of soft, light colours.

"Hey," Seungwoo waved, which caught the lumberer's attention.

"Oh, my," He turned, "I didn't see you there."

"We're adventurers. The Overworlders." 

"Ah, here to climb the Sacred World Tree?" He raised his eyebrows, chuckling slightly, "I've seen many people come and go, but you Overworlders are adamant on your ambitions. I'm guessing you need something from me?"

"Yes," Woo-jin jumped in, "We need safe passage to the Land of fairies."

"Land of fairies?" He frowned, "Never heard of such a thing."

"We insist," Woo-jin bowed, "We can help with the healing spring."

There was a moment of silence.

"I see," He paused, "I can give you passage, but that is all I can do for you. Anything afterwards is out of my jurisdiction. If the fairies are unsatisfied with you, there is nothing I can do to re-grant you access to their lands."

"What do you think?" Seungwoo accepted the quest, "Is it going to be hard?"

"I don't know," He shrugged, "I just got a tip about this quest; I don't really know the difficulty."

"You think we can do it with just the two of us?"

He smiled, "I guess it's time to find out."

The Lumberer guided them through the dense, but quiet forest. There was little sound to be made, just the ruffling of leaves and the occasional forest critter, but in about five minutes of winding turns and small rivers stood a large forest clearing with a large stone situated in the middle. The stone had smaller pebbles surrounding it but glowed a blue lustre when he glanced at it.

"This is as far as I can take you," He replied, "I wish you luck."

Woo-jin stepped forward and placed his hand on the stone. Seungwoo did the same, and he could hear a slight whirring noise. His hands vibrated at a low frequency. Nothing had happened at first, which he thought must have been a mistake, but he was teleported away to a different land as soon as he blinked.

"Woah," Seungwoo stepped back out of surprise, "What the heck?"

The scenery had changed around him from the forest clearing to just tall blades of grass jutting from the ground. The odd thing was, he wasn't just in a different place; he was considerably smaller than usual. The flowers which were small to him were now huge, towering masses. Woo-jin smiled, mesmerised by the spectacle, but Seungwoo was weirdly unnerved by his small proportions. Looking forward, he saw a gigantic tree slightly in the distance. Or was it a normal-sized tree? He wasn't too sure, considering his current size.

"Halt!" Someone spoke in front of them. It was a Knight clad in steel armour. Seungwoo would've mistaken him for another human NPC, or perhaps a player, without distinguishing his fairylike wings and slightly longer ears. "What brings you here?" He replied.

"We are here to request an audience with the Queen!" Woo-jin triumphantly replied, displaying a green gem the size of his palm. It was in the shape of a leaf, and it glinted in the sunlight, catching the eye of the guard that saw it.

He bowed in response, "Very well, you both may pass."

They walked through a magical barrier and onto the path leading to the tree. Seungwoo was alert for any danger signs, but Woo-jin went ahead without any worry. Catching up with him and following his lead, they entered to see a gigantic town built around the tree. Houses were made of mushrooms and thick bark and leaves that curved the outer portion of the tree, and several stairs spiralled the branches that ascended. There was a big entrance in the root of the tree.

"Should we enter?" Seungwoo whispered.

"I don't see why not."