The Last Warlock

Seeing that no one had any objection or showed a surprised face, the guide continued, "This rule exists for two reasons, one, the resources inside the tower belong to the Fenryr family, the small fee is their profit for letting you gather those resources, and the second reason is, that some resources are specially precious and in high demand, thus, those kind of resources would not be allowed to leave the tower and will be brought by the tower in full value instead of a small fee, that is the purpose of registering the materials. Everyone understood until now?"

Just like before, a few people nodded, but Mack stood there silent observing and hearing the rules, for him those kind of rules were actually fair, since the people could enter the tower to get materials, it was expected that not everything was allowed to be taken outside.

The guide took a sip of water from a glass cup and, with his throat refreshed, continued, "The missions. While they are optional, you can only advance on the floors once you acquires the minimum number of contribution points, its not mandatory to advance, but you can only advance once you have those contribution points, the number for each floor is 100 contribution points, and as you all can guess, the only way to acquire contribution points is completing missions given by mission hall. Any doubt?"

A man quickly raised his hand and asked, "Why would someone want to advance to the next floor?" and to everyone's surprise, it was the same man from before.

"Ah yes, Mr ...." said the guide, looking at the device while searching for something, "Mr Serpentine, the reason is that, the higher the floor is the more valuable the resources in there are, and also, less crowded with people, because not everyone has the confidence in their skills to hunt the things in there, also, the death ratio while completing missions increase several folds with each new floor."

The man gulped hard and lowered his hand, it was clear to everyone that he was not the 'courageous' kind of people.

The guide waited for a bit to see if anyone would have any questions, it was then, that Mack, without raising his hand and with his head low and eyes closed, as if was taking a nap, asked "There is a way to avoid all those useless missions and advance to the higher floors?"

Everyone in the hall looked at Mack at the same moment, as if they were seeing a beast of some sort. Even the guide's expression changed and become more serious, as if all before was just him talking with a bunch of children.

"There is one way, and that is the higher level mission of each floor, each floor has its own, and it varies, but usually it's a very strong animal to be hunted or a material that is very hard to acquire, thus, if you complete this mission, you will have the one hundred points and can pass to the next floor, but, as your guide, I strongly advice that no one take this mission because the death ratio is, well, 99%."

Seeing the man didn't show any expression of fear or even doubt the guide could not avoid but skim through the device and see who that man was, and once he found his form, he understood. The man talking was a level five ability user, a rare ability even.

"Mr Mack? is that?" asked the guide as if trying to pronounce that weird name correctly, but didn't wait for a confirmation and said, "I see you are a level five ability user, but even for level five this is a hard mission, you must understand, there is no problem in taking a few missions to advance, it will be more safe, and allow you to have a better grasp of the fauna inside the tower."

Mack then raised his head and slowly opened his eyes and asked, "What is the average time needed for someone to advance on the first floor?"

The guide understood what Mack was trying to hint, anyone with half brain could quickly connect the dots, but he had to keep his face neutral and said, "That, we don't know the exact number of days, it varies from person to person and group to group. Anyone have other questions?" said the guide, looking around, trying to change the subject.

But it seemed that the devil has picked him this time, as he heard Mack voice once again, "So, lets say each mission takes a day and each mission has 1 point in value, it will take at least a hundred days to accomplish it, that considering you take a mission every day, but, since the first floor is the most crowded with people, I bet someone can only take a mission that he feels comfortable with once a week, because the true easy and profitable ones would probably be 'monopolized' by the strongest groups, am I wrong?"

Seeing the pained expression on the face of the guide, Mack knew he had hit a soft spot, and he knew he was right too. But he chose to not provoke a mess and said, "That's why, they put that single mission that is worth one hundred points, for the truly strong people that entered a floor to not slaughter everyone inside out of anger, and it was a smart decision of them, believe me." said Mack lowering his gaze and seeming as if sleeping once again, but to the rest of the people it seemed a beast waiting to be provoked, waiting to have a reason to let blood gush out of their necks. A beast following rules, but one excuse was needed for it to show its fangs.

The eerie silence that once again engulfed the room was broken with a small cough made by the guide, "Since no one has any questions, then I will continue with the explanations, including the facilities, the price of them and how that is convertible to essence stones"