The Fifteenth Floor

"Follow me," Elttil said as he slid the door of the classroom open. "It's time to start the class."

The students all stood up and followed behind Elttil.

 He led the way to the elevators.

"When you're in the elevators, choose the fifteenth floor," Elttil said tiredly and walked alone inside one of the elevators.

After the elevator door closed and Elttil was on his way to the fifteenth floor, the students entered the elevators.

Of course, there were not enough elevators for all the students to go to the fifteenth floor at once, so some students entered the elevators while some had to wait for the elevators to come back.

Alden and the others remained to wait for the elevators to come back. But it did not take long. After a minute or two, the elevators returned, and Alden and the other remaining students entered the elevators.

Alden entered an elevator with Owen, Neo, and two other students. He chose the fifteenth floor, and they were on their way.

In no time, the elevator stopped, the door opened, and Alden and the others stepped out.

"Whoa!" Alden, Neo, and Owen gasped in shock simultaneously. And not just them. Even the students who arrived before them were still in shock at the interior of the fifteenth floor.

The fifteenth floor was large, as large as the eleventh floor, where Linda held the practical lessons class. However, without a doubt, the fifteenth floor was several times more awesome, but at the same time, it was creepy, causing chills to run down the students' spines. 

Stuck to the walls, metal tables ran all around the walls of the fifteenth floor. On the metal tables were laid many weapons. Guns, swords, daggers. There were broken weapons, as well as, accessory parts and weapons still not assembled. 

But by no means were those ordinary weapons. Those were beast weapons made of beast crystals.

But still, the most captivating thing on the fifteenth floor was the enormous tube at the center.

In the center of the floor, there was an enormous circular platform. On the platform was an enormous, glass tube going from the platform up to the ceiling.

The glass tube was full of green liquid, but what was more shocking was the thing in the tube. In the tube, submerged in the green liquid was a humanoid-looking creature.

The body of the creature was covered in brown fur, and the creature had razor-sharp claws. But one could still see the abs and chest muscles of the creature, as there was less fur on the stomach area.

In the tube, it looked like it was in a state of hibernation.

Down the circular platform, around it were computers and digital screens that showed the condition of the beast, something like a control table.

From the circular platform, thick rubber tubes erupted, going up the enormous glass tube. The rubber tubes connected to the glass tube and entered into the back of the strange beast.

"T-teacher, what is that?" A student asked, pointing at the creature in the glass tube.

"A beast," Elttil replied shortly.

'Inspect.'

Alden used inspect on the creature in the tube. 

[Name: ???]

[Species: ???]

[Growth Stage: ???]

[Realm: ???]

[Element: ???]

Alden's body shook upon seeing the status window of the creature.

'System, why did instead of information, question marks appear?' Alden questioned internally, though deep down, he guessed the answer.

[Host, the target level is a lot higher than the host's. You can not perceive the information of opponents with realms higher than you by at least 5 realms]

'Which means that beast is at least in the 6-star warrior realm.' Alden concluded.

While he was at it, he used Inspect on Elttil.

[Name: Elttil Black]

[Realm: ???]

[Beast Pet: ???]

Alden used Inspect on one more person, and that was Chloe. He was interested in seeing her status window.

[??????]

[??????]

[??????]

[??????]

Chloe's status window was full of question marks, even more mysterious than the beast in the tube or Elttil. Not even the name was displayed.

"Teacher, can you tell us more about the beast in the tube?" A student asked, hopeful to learn more about the scary-looking beast. "We are curious."

"No. I don't care." Elttil replied indifferently to his student's earnest request. "If you are that curious, go to the library on the ninth floor."

Immediately, the students started talking about their dissatisfaction.

"Shut up. And listen to me. I do not have much to say." Elttil said. "I know I said it is time for class, but I don't want to waste my energy on you."

"All you need to know is that this is the research laboratory of the academy. You can not come here as you wish. There must always be someone accompanying you.

That is all. You can go now and look at the beast weapons. Just don't touch the tube or anything on the control table." Elttil waved his hand at the students dismissively and walked to the control table.

The students, mesmerized by the beast in the tube, all walked closer.

Alden, on the other hand, with Neo and Owen, walked to a table with weapons.

"Woaa!" Neo exclaimed, his eyes sparkling like stars. "What a beautiful sword." He picked a fiery red sword in his hands. "Man, sometimes I wish I was a swordsman. Look at this beauty." He raised the sword in the air. "I have not seen a staff this beautiful. They are always the same."

"Then why don't you just switch? You can always learn more martial arts than one." Alden said.

"No thanks." Just thinking about it made Neo instantly return the sword to the table. "Mastering another weapon will take too much effort. Also, I do not like cutting, I like blunt weapons."

Alden shrugged his shoulders and returned to admiring the beast weapons. This was his first time seeing beast weapons.

The first thing that grabbed his attention was a blue beast gun.

"Is this a gun with beast bullets?"

"No, it does not have bullets," Neo replied. "It has beast crystals as bullets. Specifically, it takes the energy of a beast crystal and fires off a beam of energy. It is a lesser version of the beast cannons." After answering the question, Neo returned to looking at other weapons.

Alden raised his head and looked around. He noticed that no one paid any attention to him. Neo held a pair of blue daggers, mesmerized by their beauty, and Owen held a large purple blade.

Teacher Elttil was by the control table while all the students were either still staring at the creature or had beast weapons in their hands.

Buzz!

A buzzing sound sounded throughout the fifteenth floor.

"AGHHHHHHHH!"

Soon after, a scream of agony erupted.