I slowly made my way into the next clearing waiting for the next animal. I wondered what it was going to throw at me to top a giant praying mantis. I sensed movement once again as a lion slowly sauntered out of the forest, oozing confidence with each of its steps.

It slowly circled me looking at me as if I was just another prey to be devoured. I readied my sword, wondering what type of trick this beast might have.

The beast feinted to the left before lunging and swinging its paw at my head. I had enough time to deflect the paw, but as soon as I did, it opened its maw and let out a burst of flames.

I tried to dodge, but it still made contact with my side scorching me and instantly sending pain signals to my brain. Gritting my teeth through the pain, I prepared for the next attack.

The injury slowed my movements. It was the first thing to truly penetrate my body's defense.

The lion circled me with what seemed like an almost smug look at my obvious pain.
This time instead of pouncing it let out its flames, which I hastily rolled to avoid, but as soon as tried to come to my feet, the lion tackled me, knocking me to the ground.

I reacted before it could bite though kicking up with both my legs sending it flying into the air and slamming into the top of one of the surrounding trees.

It slid down the tree with what grace it could manage before approaching me again. The smug look now replaced with one of anger. I let out a grin, knowing I had a chance of winning this. It was strong and fast, yes, but not quite at my new bodies level. Its only advantage was the fire if I could just avoid that I would be golden.

It was warier after its failed attack and seemed to be waiting on me to make the first move. I slowly approached sword held high I feinted to the right before jumping up.

Dodging the blast of flames, the lion let out in response. I then plunged my sword into the back of its head as I fell, pinning it to the ground and ending its life.

I glanced up, seeing another path in the forest melt away, undoubtedly leading to another clearing and another fight. It seems it truly did want to push me to my death.

I reluctantly pulled myself to my feet, wincing at the burns that scarred half my body as I gingerly made my way to the next clearing.

It was yet another clearing slightly more extensive than even the one with the bear making me wonder about the size of the beast I might face next.

I nervously looked around, wondering when my opponent would appear. I didn't sense any movement when suddenly I heard what seemed like a violent gust of wind.

Following that, I was thrown tumbling into the air as I watched my now headless body collapse onto the ground, making me all to aware of the type of attack I just suffered as my vision quickly faded to black.

I woke up once again in the large atrium surrounded by marble shops. Quickly patting down my body to make sure it was all their before reassuring myself that there were no wounds.

I let out a sigh of relief it seems Matt hadn't been lying when he said that you'd be brought back as long as you cleared the task. Within moments of me laying there, the voice rang out in my head once again.

"Congratulations applicant, you have successfully passed the second floor with a grade of S. Awarding applicant 27,000 points for outstanding performance in the test. Suggest applicant choose elemental and body cultivation skills before the next test."

Ha, it seemed I had still earned my S rating even without injuring the last beast whatever it was. It made me wonder what levels were beyond S.

I wasn't left their pondering before a man in a familiar straw hat approached me with a grin on his face.

"So our glorious newbie managed to survive the second level. Well done, I wouldn't have placed your odds on more than 1 in 10. It seems we can finally start considering you as a true test taker. And what's with that grey skin. Don't tell me? What race did you manage to get?"

We was looking all around at my skin, admiring its color as he talked in his usual animated way. I wasn't sure if I should share my race or keep it secret. But considering he hadn't misled me so far, I figured I might as well tell him.

"I picked the race Sword-kin with the element Lighting. They were both pretty expensive, so I figured they should at least be pretty good."

I once again got to see the look of shock on his face as he glanced at my skin.

"I recognized the color but couldn't be sure. How in the hell did you manage to get so many points on the first floor? I barely managed to scrape by with an F forget extra points. Hmm, now that you mention it though, there were rumors that the first-floor test starts at the level of a normal being of your world before you guys get your first tower clear."

What he said made sense to me. If I were an average untrained person, just killing the first faceless man would have been a challenge, much less the three after him. I told him as much, and he laughed as he said.

"Well, that explains it. Once someone in your world clears the tower, the difficulty will go up. Well, either way, you got super lucky. Sword-kin is so overpowered, especially in the later stages. Come on, let's get you some cultivation techniques. I can't wait to see what a powered up Sword-kin could do."

He then pulled me towards a shop with a sign that read.

"Body Cultivation"

Before we got there, I shook my arm loose and looked him in the eyes as he turned towards me so I could ask a question that had been burning in me since the first time I met him.

"Why are you helping me out so much? We don't know each other. Hell, we aren't even from the same planet."

He looked towards me with a somewhat nervous grin as he said.

"Seems like you caught on. It's true nobody in this tower helps newbies out of the bottom of their heart their is always a catch. See, so far you have been doing your test alone. But that won't continue once you hit the fourth floor you start getting randomly assigned teammates and the test are more complex than just arena battles."

I held my hand up to stop his spiel as he overwhelmed me with the new information.

"So your saying we will start getting teammates. Can't you pick them in any way? I don't favor just getting lucky?"

We quickly responded

"You wish. Theirs no picking them. At least at first. But once you hit the 50th floor, it's different. Not only do the test spike in difficulty, but you're also allowed to pick a full group of seven team members, which comes back to the reason for helping newbies. People like me do it with the hopes that you can make it up to our floors and join our teams. Because another thing is once you hit floor 50, the tower gets very generous with the wait times. I've still got 50 years before I need to take the next test. Though you can always choose to take it earlier even then, it still leaves lots of time for recruitment."

I stood there taking in the new information that could be the difference in life and death. I realized if what he said was real; connections were going to start being very important.

Though I had to wonder if people were waiting for 50 years, where was everyone. The atrium was crowded, sure, but it only amounted to a few hundred people not much for a tower this big. So I asked.

"If you have such long wait times between test, where is everyone? Surely there are more than a few hundred people left?"

He grinned and said.

"It seems like we have a smart one. What you see is only the public atrium you can rent out your own private spaces if you have enough points. Most people will stay there to wait for their test, at least if they aren't shopping or recruiting. Enough of that though not much time till your next test and we should get your cultivation techniques first. This way, this way."