Just like it always been, it once was again, and two weeks passed in a blink of an eye.

Mack now stood in front of a huge gate. Dozens of people were around him, and a few more dozens were watching not too far from them, all waiting to join the Fenryr Tower.

This gate was the admission gate of the Fenryr Tower. One of the two entrances of the tower, the one for new members.

The thing that Mack still could not accept was the fact that they called it ‘a tower’. The ‘thing’ looked more like a bunker than a tower. Mack already knew about that, but still….

‘They should call it a dungeon instead of a tower’, thought Mack, seeing the entrance to the ‘tower’ leading to the underground.

Every single mage tower had its own ‘eccentricities’ and the Fenryr tower was the only one that instead of going up, was going down. The tower levels went deep in the ground for hundreds of floors. Only the entrance stood above the ground.

Mack was waiting for about 10 minutes already. Everyone hated to wait in a queue, and Mack was no different. He was bored, super bored, but unfortunately, he had to be well behaved. If a fight occurred at the Entrance, the tower would enter in lockdown as a safe measure, and if it was not an attack and simply some people fighting among themselves, the guards would record the entire thing and ‘blacklist’ everyone involved, and that, was for life. Thus, people rarely interacted with others at the entrance, most of the people just stood there alone, waiting for the procedures to start.

~DONG~

Just as Mack was about to sit out of boredom, he heard the huge bell ring. It was time for the procedures to start.

A guard came forward and instructed everyone to set up a queue, and one minute later, another guard came to take the info.

Time passed quickly, and Mack’s turn came. The guard didn’t even bother to look up at Mack and asked, “Name and planet”

“Mack, Earth.”

After talking with Harlack about it, Mack decided he was not going to hide his identity. If he wished to have some kind of leverage in the future, he had to be known. An unknown person can’t make demands without unsheathing his blade, and Mack had a lot of plans for the future. He would not be able to solve everything with killing.

He knew it was risky to say his home planet’s name because people may use it to blackmail him, but for him, they could destroy the planet. He would not move a finger to defend it. He made his last concession when he let those mages live back on Earth, from the moment he left the planet, the planet also left him.

The guard looked up in Mack’s eyes and asked, “Affiliations or Family?”

“None”

The guard made a small nod and, looking back at the device in his hand, asked another question. “Classification and level?”

This was the trickiest question for Mack, because depending on what he said, he had to limit himself in the way he fought or the runespells he used, but Harlack thought of a solution for that long ago.

“Ability User and Rune Master, Level Five.”

Once those words were said, the guard looked up at Mack as if he was seeing a beast, it was rare for him to see a rune master and even more to see a level five joining the tower, but refrained from saying anything about that, and asked, “Which Ability?”

“Blood Ignition,” said Mack, not caring about the murmurs that he heard behind him.

People who joined the tower were usually low level, at maximum, level three, it was extremely rare for someone of level five to join, because those people were already part of some organization or family, it was extremely hard for someone to gain level five with no support.

“Blood Ignition is not on the list of abilities. Are you sure it’s the correct name?” asked back the guard showing a troubled face, it was rare to an ability to not be on the list, but he also knew that people usually had different names for the same abilities and also, some abilities were variant of other abilities, thus, becoming a nightmare to keep an accurate record of them all.

“It’s a variant of Essence Ignition, it has a drawback of making me weak and losing blood when active,” said Mack, not even blinking while lying about his true ‘abilities’.

“I see. We will record that information for future reference and put you under the Essence Ignition category until the records are updated. This is a normal procedure, so you don’t have to worry about it, it will not affect you in any way.” said the guard, not removing his eyes from the device in his hand while writing all the information that Mack said.

After a few seconds, the guard turned the device in his hand and said, “Look at the hole”. Mack did as instructed and could see tiny lasers coming out of it and mapping his face, iris, and upper body.

The guard turned back the device, and now both Mack and the guard could see a 3D version of Mack at the top of his form in the device. It was not a holographic  device, but the 3D version of Mack on the top looked very realistic and well done.

Mack could also see that some green dots appeared at the corner of his form but the guard quickly interrupted Mack curiosity but tilting the angle of the device and saying “You are good to go. Enter the gate and wait with the others inside. The moment the procedures are done, a guard will come to explain the next part”

Mack gave a small nod, and walked inside, but behind him he heard the whispers of two guards talking with each other.. His level five was indeed a bit eye catching for a newbie at the tower.