The whispers continued incessantly as the orientation ceremony proceeded to its conclusion. Knight could feel hundreds of eyes staring at his back, a mix of disdain, suspicion, and amazement at his daring or his madness. However, Professor Eve, standing beside the stage, merely tilted the corner of her mouth into a smile as if she were watching something fun.
When the assembly dismissal signal rang out, Knight immediately slipped away from the auditorium to avoid a confrontation with the nobles who seemed to be gathering to wait to "teach him a lesson." However, he paused when he looked down at the class schedule on the smartphone provided by the institute.
[System Announcement: Student Status Detected – Knight]
[Your Classroom is: Class S]
[Location: Athena Research Building, Classroom Number One – Please enter the class at this time]
'Class S, huh? The highest level,' Knight thought as he walked to the classroom according to the map inside the smartphone.
Many eyes stared at his back, but Knight didn't pay much attention. Regardless, he just came to study to get it over with and get the certificate so he could enter the Tower legally. He didn't intend to find friends or anything.
'These people are so annoying. Staring like cowards,' Knight said as he walked to Classroom S before seeing that there were fewer than ten people inside. And each person didn't look like the trashy nobles outside at all.
'Given the name Class S, it probably gathers only the cream of the crop…' Knight didn't care; he walked to the back corner of the room by the window and sat down, while scanning around the room.
The classroom had a design that blended cutting-edge technology with classic style. The walls were a clean creamy white, decorated with polished dark oak. The base of the room was designed like an ancient Greek theater with a semi-circular arc, stacked three tiers high so everyone could see each other's faces. And in the center, at the lowest point, was the instructor's area, which had a crystal blackboard and a gargantuan holographic screen installed.
Inside the room, there were three male students and three female students. When including Knight, it made exactly seven people. This strangely balanced ratio made the classroom, which could hold nearly a hundred people, look far too empty. Each person sat scattered in different directions as if they were leopards guarding their own territory.
'There are way fewer people than I thought. Is it worth it just to come and teach a class of only seven kids?'
After Knight had been sitting for a while, the classroom door opened, and an instructor who was an elderly man walked in. In his hands were both documents and a portable computer; his other hand held a bag that seemed to be full of books.
"Hello, everyone. I will be your homeroom teacher. I look forward to working with you," the elderly instructor said before starting to install his portable computer to the large screen in the center of the classroom.
'This is the Class S homeroom teacher? He doesn't look like a warrior at all. But then again... strength is often hidden in a simple appearance,' Knight thought as he rested his chin on his hand and looked at the screen.
"For the first period today, I will teach you about the history of the Tower and Welders. Even though you might have studied it before, please bear with it," the instructor opened the screen and showed a long teaching document, but Knight summarized the core content as:
In 1957, ten years after the end of World War II, a giant tower shot up from underground without origin. It pierced the sky like a needle piercing through silk. There was no shaking of the ground beforehand; no geological tremors were detected. Its height was several kilometers, and its summit disappeared into the clouds. Along with it, multicolored boxes fell from rifts in the sky, drifting down like leaves falling from an impossible tree, and began searching for those who would become owners.
These boxes would provide trials to the chosen ones. At that time, no one knew what happened, only knowing that anyone who touched a box would disappear immediately as if swallowed by thin air.
Shortly after, hundreds of thousands of monsters flooded out from the 28 entrances of the Tower. Military authorities could not prepare in time. They poured into cities, across plains, and through mountain passes, bringing humanity to the brink of extinction within just a few months. Even the most powerful weapons known to man, like nuclear bombs detonated in front of the Tower gates, could not eliminate them all. For every thousand that fell, another ten thousand would rush forward from within the dark interior of the Tower. Their bodies were adapted for warfare in a way that indicated they had been waiting patiently and purposefully for a long, long time.
However, a few months later, those reported missing began to return.
They returned with changes. They returned with special powers, supernatural weapons, and spirit beasts that walked beside them like shadows with form and loyalty. Their eyes held the calm of those who had seen things that permanently changed the internal structure of their world. They rarely spoke of what was in the trials; what was important was what they could do now. And what they did was finally counterattack the monster hordes with a ferocity equal to the enemy.
From that turning point, the "Tower Research Unit" was founded as a global organization dedicated to penetrating deep into the spires, pioneering new floors, cataloging inhabitants and geography, and ensuring the continued protection of humanity. It attracted the brave, the wise, the desperate, and those in grief in equal proportions.
Seventy-three years have passed since that day. Humanity has been able to push up to the twenty-eighth floor. It might not sound like much of a number that could be mistaken for little progress but each floor is as vast as an entire continent. There are constantly changing climates, unpredictable terrains, and ecosystems that rewrite themselves during each exploration, requiring constant preparation and making old maps almost useless. Surviving on a single floor might take a decade, while truly understanding it might take a lifetime.
The difficulty of higher floors is at an impossible level. Just the twenty-seventh floor alone has claimed the lives of hundreds of high-level "Welders" individuals possessing no fewer than three Penitent-level boxes and no fewer than one Ascendant-level box. These veterans, who survived trials that could crush ordinary people to pieces, their deaths were a catastrophe. It was a tremor sent through the Welder community worldwide and caused entire agencies to be restructured overnight. This loss significantly slowed down the exploration of the twenty-eighth floor.
Currently, the exploration of the twenty-eighth floor is still as slow as before, even though the 'Saints' have joined this exploration.
"The story is roughly like this. Does anyone have any questions?" After the lecture ended, the instructor asked while walking to stand in the center.
"Umm... What is the instructor's name?" A female student with hair blue like the sea in the morning asked with a shy voice.
"Oh! I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Cassian. Pleased to meet you," Instructor Cassian smiled with squinted eyes. "Any other questions?"
"I have one..." Knight spoke up with a voice that sounded like he didn't really want to ask, but in his heart, he wanted to know one thing very much since the entrance exam. "These boxes, can they be bought and sold too? Isn't it that you must be chosen and pass the trial yourself?"
"Oh! That is an excellent question, young man!" Cassian seemed to become enthusiastic immediately. "In the old days, yes, the box chose the person. But about 50 years ago, it was discovered that certain types of boxes have 'broad' ownership conditions enough to be passed to one another, if the receiver has a mana level or basic qualifications that match what the box wants."
Instructor Cassian began to elaborate for a long time as if he had been waiting for this question. Knight was able to summarize it as:
In an era of the world where everything is decided by 'boxes,' it makes millions of people want to possess them. But the method to obtain them requires being chosen, and just being chosen isn't enough; one must pass its trial, which varies in difficulty according to the level of the box. This made many people give up on them.
But everything turned upside down when, about fifty years ago, some groups discovered that some boxes were not attached to the owner's person. They can be delivered and passed on if that person meets the box's conditions, and some conditions are so broad that anyone can possess them.
This led to the trading of boxes within many families and kept expanding until, all over the world now, if anyone wants to possess a 'box,' they can just take money and buy it.
The price varies for each level, ranging from Acolyte, Disciple, Penitent, to Ascendant. As for the highest level like Saint, it is not for sale because, as mentioned before, there are only ten people in the world who possess them, and those people are 'Saints' who distribute themselves to occupy areas within the tower from the first to fifth floors, which have become human cities shared with knowledgeable races within the tower, and established themselves as the Ten Great Families, with each family having its own army. This is different from the Tower Research Unit, which is the largest organization of Welders.
But even so, those ten possessors still hold the rank of 'Saint' within the research unit.
However, no one guarantees that if you possess a box you bought, it will bring success. Otherwise, the high-level Welder army exploring the 27th floor of the tower wouldn't just have five boxes per person; they would probably have ten boxes each.
To become stronger isn't just about having many 'boxes,' but those boxes must be of a high level and must support and promote each other.
"It's roughly like this. No one has any more questions, right?" Instructor Cassian asked after seeing the students in the room starting to look absent-minded from the overwhelming amount of information flowing in.
"Haha, then today's first class ends here. Tomorrow there's a practical class, let's meet at the training ground," Instructor Cassian said before packing his things and walking out of the room.
As for Knight, he was also packing his things and about to walk out of the room as well.
"Wait, wait! You're there!" A cheerful-sounding call rang out from behind.
Knight stopped dead. His body tensed up by instinct. His sharp eyes glanced back. "What is it?"
The young man who owned the voice looked friendly, with short blonde hair and a sincere smile. "It's nothing much. The rest of us talked and thought since our Class S has only seven people, shall we make an appointment to go find something to eat and get to know each other? Since we have to be in the same room for a long time. Interested in going together?"
Knight was silent for a moment. 'Eating to get to know each other... what a waste of time.' The first thought in his head was to refuse, but then he suddenly realized that information from people at the Class S level might be more useful than sitting and searching for it himself in the library. And having strong 'allies' is surely better than having 'enemies' all around in a place where he doesn't know anyone.
"Sure, I'll go too." Knight shrugged with a slightly more relaxed posture before walking in to join the group of his six classmates, each of whom seemed to have 'secrets' hidden beneath those smiling faces, no different from him.