After walking a bit, Mack entered a small room that had no more than ten people and took a vacant seat among the many available, the room was silent with not even whispers or small talks happening making the atmosphere a little uncomfortable for most, but for Mack, already used to silence, it was just a normal day.

Mack noticed that the room was devoid of any kind of decoration, or furniture, and that the opposite door he came also had two guards. It seemed a pattern. At each door, two guards were there.

Once Mack took a seat, more and more people started to come inside the room, and after half an hour almost everyone from outside was here.

Small talks started to happen, and the eerie silence was no more, until a man came from the opposite door and gave a loud cough, with that, everyone’s attention turned to the man, who started to talk in small voice, as if not caring if the others would hear him or not, “Welcome to Fenryr Tower” said the man taking a pause, and than continued, “My name is Skot, I will be, what we call here, your guide. I will be responsible for answering to your doubts and to help you on the initial floors of the tower, in other words, until you reach the floor number 10 of the tower.”

The room went silent waiting for the man to finish his introduction, that until, someone said, “Oh god! We already know everything about the tower. Just let us enter already!”

A few people nodded, but none said anything aloud.

“Right, I know most of you have friends of family inside the tower, and the common knowledge about the tower is very well spread in our world, but this time, we have a few people from other planets joining, so let me finish my job and then you can go and kill yourself at the first floor, Ok?” said Skot, not turning his head to look at the man that spoke and keeping his ‘authoritative’ demeanor.

While silent looking at the people inside as if to see if someone would still spout some nonsense, a guard came to the side of Skot and gave him a device, while saying “The entries for this time, Sir”.

Skot skimmed through the screens and raised his head again, looking at the people inside the room, “I can see some of you have potential, so let me continue, otherwise, hehehe” said Skot as if a bit angry by the interruption of the man from before.

Skot gave the device back to the guard and continued, “The initial floors are for material gathering, in other words, you guys will be ‘well paid’ farmers and hunters, the material you will gather varies, and a lot of it is a bit dangerous to catch, or they are in dangerous environments, or they are dangerous by itself, I always recommend that you form teams of five people with mixed skills so you can safely pick up those materials, but that is up to you.”

While Skot was talking someone suddenly raised a hand as if he was in a school, making Skot eyes bright with the respect the man showed. Seeing the hand raised, Skot took a pause and said, “Whats your question?”

The man raised from his seat. He seemed a bit thin for a warrior, ‘maybe a mage’, thought Mack, while looking at the man that stood up. The man than gave a small cough and said “We really need to gather those resources? I mean, whats the point of it?”

When the man said his words almost everyone laughed, even Skot, “I see you never heard about a mage tower in your life, right? What is a mage tower about? Let me tell you, is about mages doing research, and is also a ‘defensive tower’, something to make hard for invaders to control the planet, and in both cases, resources are needed, this tower was created to be self-sufficient, as most mage towers are, in other words, most of the materials needed for research or to keep the tower going, are acquired from inside the tower itself, that’s why we let folks like you enter the tower to begin, so you can work your ass off and acquire those material in exchange of money.”

The man that asked the question lowered his head and, as if devoid of any pride, said, “I see, sorry for the stupid question.” While seating again, not even thinking about asking anything again.

Skot looked at the pained face in the man and shook his head, but said nothing about it and continued, “So… continuing…. At each floor, there will an Exchange Building, the building is full of facilities for your daily needs, and it contains the mission hall, there, is where you will take your missions to collect materials and return the acquired materials, apart from that, you are free to hunt or collect everything you find inside the floor, you can consume or use those things, but you can’t bring it outside, every time you leave the tower, you will be throughly inspected and if you don’t have a permission you be punished if caught smuggling items.”

Skot took another pause and said, “But lets say you hunted a very rare animal, and want his hide to create a glove outside the tower, because you know a man that does it and will give you a very good discount, this is a very practical example as most people do this, to be able to do this, you need to go to the exchange building and register the material in your name, a small fee will be charged, and you are free to take your spoils out of the tower, am I clear?”

Hearing the firm tone of the guide a few people nodded out of habit, and seeing that, he continued, “Now, the most important rule of the tower, you are not allowed to fight or steal or do any kind of ‘uncivilized thing’ close to the building and its facilities, or you will be banned for life,”

Skot took a pause and said, “But outside of the perimeter of the building, and when I said ‘perimeter’, you will be able to understand once you see, because there is a very obvious wall separating it, you are free to do as you wish.”