The Personal Room Inside the Tower

The next moment he opened his eyes to find himself standing inside a small metallic room. The room wasn't that large or fancy, only having one screen and an old metallic seat with rust invading many parts of it.

"It's the moment of truth," he said trying to encourage himself before heading to the seat and simply sat on it.

The screen lit up before a small silver dot appeared in the center of the entire darkness of the screen.

"Welcome Harry Ferbender to the support center of the tower," a sweet feminine voice appeared while small waves erupted from the dot affecting the blackness around like it was a rock thrown in a lake.

"Here I can answer any doubts you have, give you some valuable offers, and also help you through your journey in the tower. You are now inside your private space, a space no one is allowed to enter without your permission."

Harry clenched his fists before saying in a shaky tone, "I have a question."

"As a beginner you are granted one free question," the voice said before adding, "ask anything you want to know and I'll provide the answer if one existed."

"Can anyone be killed inside the tower?" he said before hurriedly adding, "someone who isn't a beginner at zero level?"

"That's…" the voice paused before adding, "impossible."

'I knew it!' he clenched his hands until he couldn't feel them anymore. His body trembled while his mind was only having a single image in his mind. "My brother is… alive," he murmured before two dots of tears appeared in his blue sky eyes before wiping them out.

His eyes were something he never appreciated. As far as he could recall, his weird blue eyes with small silver circles around the iris were the source of his misery. He missed his father's clan inheritance to take these two weird eyes of his mother.

He didn't even take their lethal part! In fact no one ever knew what his two eyes were capable of. In front of everyone, he was just a mere crippled useless kid that was destined to be the weak link in his family.

And his father's rivals weren't merciful at all; constantly used him as the toxic nail to wipe out his entire family.

"Are you seeking someone?" the voice said while the calm waves that erupted from the silver dot weren't like anything inside Harry's mind right now.

"My brother," he firmly nodded, "I got the news lately of his death inside the tower."

"Which level was he at?"

"Level seventy-nine."

"He couldn't be killed," the voice confidently said, "if you worked hard in the future and amassed enough wealth, you can come and seek my advice to find him."

"You can?" Harry was speechless there for a moment.

"I can find anyone inside the tower," the voice said, "provided that he or she didn't choose an ability to hide their presence from my eye."

Harry felt slight regret. This golden chance to ask for free was wasted like that. He was impulsive, only thinking to gain an answer to that troubled question he had for weeks now.

Yet there was another way around, more direct and would provide a satisfying answer to all his doubts. And he just missed it.

"What if I asked you about his well being? Alive or… dead?" he paused for a second there as he never believed in the lie he heard about his brother's doomed fate.

His older brother was someone he saw as an idol. For the family he was the shining beacon that would hold the flag of the main branch of the phoenix family in troubled times.

Yet for him he was that unshakable pillar, the mountain that would stay there even after the end of the world.

"I can do it," the voice said, "even if that person used an ability to hide his whereabouts I can still tell if he was inside the tower or not, alive or dead."

"Thanks," Harry controlled his emotions before adding, "we can proceed to the first mission."

"Indeed," the voice said in a much sweeter tone, "you are now at level zero of the tower. To gain one ability you'll have to ascend one stage at a time. The laws of the tower are sacred, you'll randomly gain one ability at any stage while losing the one you gained before."

Harry silently listened as he already was aware of all these rules and even more yet to come.

"Every five levels you'll gain a chance to select one of the previous five abilities to stay with you as permanent. Having two abilities at any time would allow you a chance to merge them to something higher, provided that you do the merge mission assigned to you by the system."

Harry nodded as he already was aware of all that from his family talks and brother's distant calls.

"Now it's time for the ability check. Inside the tower we assign abilities based on your lineage and innate talent. For instance I can see you are hailing from the phoenix clan, right?"

The question invoked some bitterness in his throat as he nodded in agreement.

"Then if you and a dragon clan kid get yourselves a fire ability, you will have the ability to generate fire while he will have the ability to control it. Everything is based on the innate ability of you and the path of evolution you'll decide now."

"But I heard there's another path," he couldn't help but speak up, stopping the voice from proceeding with what usually would happen, "the ace path."

"That… are you sure?" the voice paused for a moment, "you came from a very strong lineage and very prestigious clan. Ditching all that and leaving everything in the hand of fate isn't good."

'Like I have any choice in that,' he sarcastically thought. He dreamt to do like the voice suggested, but then he would end up being with his useless eyes… The same eyes he was desperately trying to escape from.

"The ace isn't just randomly selected talents, it's like merging all the possible lineages inside oneself and creating a brand new and stronger one, right?"

"Not necessarily true," the voice warned, "this is still a gamble. The tower will do its best to help you, but not necessarily what comes out will please you."

"I'll take my chances," he firmly said, 'Anything is better than these useless eyes of mine,' he inwardly muttered while waiting for the dot to continue.

"As you wish," the voice said before warning, "but this decision will remain forever with you. It's extremely rare to have a chance to change your innate talent, so I strongly advise you to reconsider."

"I choose to proceed," he was stubborn at this moment. In fact it was one of the rare positive traits he was proud of.

Despite being considered a failure in the entire phoenix family, he never lost hope. He searched far and near, sent for anyone who promised to help, and spent a lot of wealth seeking a solution or even just an answer.

Eventually he ended up by one bitter realization; no one was able to help him; no one but only the tower.

And here he was, finally reaching the place he long dreamt about. All paths led him here, and he wouldn't hesitate to proceed accordingly.

"Alright," the voice said before a small tray appeared from a hole in the wall, moving towards him in a swift way. "Please provide a drop of your blood and wait for the results."

He found a small metallic cup and a small needle there. He didn't hesitate to prick his thumb and let a few drops fall over the cup.

Then the tray moved spontaneously heading back inside the hole before it vanished like it was never there.

"I hope I can get something nice," he muttered while trying to encourage himself. He knew this was a gamble, but this big gamble was the last northern star he had in his entire life.

"Congratulations," the voice suddenly said just after mere minutes, "there is a result and you gained a very outstanding innate talent."

"Really?" he asked in much anticipation before the words that appeared over the screen totally shocked him.

"No way…" he softly muttered before jumping in rage over his seat, "how the hell did this happen?"