After a short while, Old Man Leng came back out of the backroom and sighed deeply. Then, he held out his hand.

"Gimme the antidote, and tell me the address ya want to send it to. I'll get it delivered. Oh, and don't ask questions," he said.

"... Um, okay," Lan Xiao Su murmured, before doing as told. "The address is... "

After telling Old Man Leng the address and leaving the antidote in his care, the rest of us headed back to the hotel to get some rest. The preliminaries were in a week - we needed to get stronger as fast as possible using the time we had remaining. Climbing the floors of the Library should be good for that.

So, for the next seven days, the girls and I went to the Library every day, climbing up and up the floors. While everyone else fought the Gatekeepers to advance, however, I, instead, met with the remaining Founders of the Library. They all attempted to ask me the same things, about my Chaos power and whatnot. None of them succeeded. So far, I've hit the 16th floor, and met 15 of the 16 Founders:

Sigil - Celesticus Founder.

Aluna - Elf Founder.

Count Draculus - Vampire Founder.

Lord Luisfer - Demon Founder.

Hephestus - Dwarven Founder. He offered to forge me an extremely powerful weapon in return for information, but I already had my two Chaos katanas and the obsidian greatsword I obtained from the Xuan family guard commander if needed. I severely doubted the dwarf could make a weapon greater than those, no matter how skilled he was.

ARXA-5 - X-Machina Founder. This woman (?) had wanted to fight me. We ended up engaging in a flying dogfight, and she had been the victor. The deal had been if I lost, I had to tell her info, but I never promised anything, so I merely went back on my word after the fight. She was pretty pissed, but couldn't kill me either, so eventually, she had no choice but to just let me go.

Fiona - Succubus Founder. She tried to seduce me. Didn't work, end of story. The charm of succubi may be powerful, but I was surrounded by goddess-level beauties every day, so they were ineffective on me, fortunately.

Tian Lin - Human Founder. This man was cold and demanding. He wasn't physically forceful like Count Draculus had been, but he did have an aura around him that told me he wasn't someone to mess with. That said, I didn't fall under the pressure. Once again, the Founders failed to extract any information from me.

Lienne - Fairy Founder. This encounter was interesting. She didn't bring up the topic of my hidden power at all, but instead chatted about her own life. We ended up having a nice picnic under beautiful weather. Apparently, she was good friends with Aluna.

Scarlet - Beast Founder. She was an Elder Dragon - one of the most powerful existences on Xenith. A Rank 8 Magic Beast, apparently. She and I talked more about Obsidia than my power. She was curious to see one of her kin traveling with me, a human. I told her we had a deal, and it had something to do with dragon territory. However... that wasn't the full story, and Scarlet seemed to sense that as well. There was something off about Obsidia - and it was related to the Chaos inside me. Scarlet couldn't identify it precisely, but she knew something was unusual.

Kracken - Monster Founder. We didn't even talk. The moment I stepped through the portal, I found myself on a ship in the middle of a raging storm. A massive octopus-like creature started attacking the ship, but never actually destroyed it. I thought it was a legitimate Gatekeeper at first, but then realized this was far too powerful for these early floors. After a while, he finally spoke, giving me his name and demanding info from me. Naturally, I refused. Also naturally, I was threatened. And of course, I wasn't scared in the least. Eventually, he sent me back after realizing this conversation was getting nowhere.

Sino - Dark Elf Founder. He was actually quite an enjoyable guy to talk to. I knew that elves and dark elves had a long, bloody history, but when I asked him about his thoughts on Aluna, he didn't seem to dislike her at all. In fact... he seemed to have a crush on her, or something. Aluna didn't seem to requite his feelings though, according to him.

Kyoko - Demihuman Founder. A wolf girl. Despite a small frame, she was quite fierce. At least, her tone was. She lacked the actual determination to go through with her empty threats. Honestly, her actions were more cute than scary, in my opinion. Though if I told her that, she might really kill me.

Asteryx - Ethereal Founder. This was... really dull. The portal led me to a room of nothingness, except for a man sitting at a bland table, drinking some sort of tea. He asked me to tell me about the power I held. I refused. He let me out.

Runter - Giant Founder. He was quite friendly and easy-going, despite our difference in size. Unfortunately, even his nice, polite way of asking me wouldn't be able to make me give out info. I had no idea what these Founders would do to me once they did get the information, after all - especially now that I knew about their existence. According to the info I received from Luisfer, the Founders' existence was meant to be a secret, after all.

And now, on the day right before the preliminaries. It was around 6 AM in the morning, which was really night inside The Fortress. I decided to try one more floor. For the record, on the 15th floor, we finally found some useful spells - Level One spells, that is. On this floor, the 16th, were some more advanced Level One spells that weren't taught at most schools.

The other girls had already gone back to sleep early and rest in preparation for tomorrow, but I wanted to stay. Mei Gui stayed with me, as usual.

We headed up the spiral staircase, which seemed to just stretch on and on. Soon, the two of us arrived at a door - the entrance to the 17th Floor.

I decided to go first, scanning my card on the device beside the door. However... when the door opened...

"Master... I can see the portal too," Mei Gui said suddenly.

"What?!"

"Yes... I do not know why, but I can see the portal."

I sank into thought. Out of all the Founders I've met with so far... only one remains. The Elemental Founder. Perhaps... this was her doing? She wanted Mei Gui to come in with me?

"Come with me," I said, taking Mei Gui's hand, and dragging her into the portal.

*****

- On the Other Side -

"You're finally here," a low, female voice asked. I couldn't see her or what she looked like, but our surroundings were a throne room of some kind - kind of similar to that of Lord Luisfer's.

"You're the Elemental Founder, I take it?" I asked.

"Indeed. And you must be the boy I have heard so much about from my friends lately."

"If you're here to look for more information on this 'power' I have or whatever, sorry, but I literally don't have any idea what you're talking about," I said. "Though, I appreciate you guys letting me through the floors so easily, without having to even fight."

"Worry not. I am not here to ask you about your hidden power today. Even if I did, you will not tell me. I have gathered that much from my acquaintances' encounters with you."

"So? What are you here to ask me about then?"

"It is regarding that girl beside you. Or should I say.. Elemental?"

Mei Gui narrowed her eyes, ready to fight at a moment's notice.

"Relax, girl. I am not here to fight you. I do, however... have many questions about you. Of the 21 Elements, you belong to none. However, at the same time, I feel energy from all 21 coming from within you. What is this? I have never seen such a thing before."

"... I do not know either," Mei Gui replied stoically, not giving away anything.

"Hmph. Do you wish to know who I am?"

"I mean, the other Founders all did a little self-introduction about themselves, so..." I trailed off.

"Very well," the voice said before suddenly, a girl wearing a white kitsune-like mask materialized in front of us, amidst a bright light. She wore traditional Japanese (demihuman) clothes, a white robe lined with red. On her feet were two traditional sandals, known as 'geta'. Her figure was short, but still taller than Kyoko, the demihuman founder. Beneath her mask, I could see short black hair. Given this frame, she was a humanoid Elemental - which, according to Luisfer, were extremely rare. This one and Mei Gui were the only two he has seen so far.

The girl spun around, and took off her mask slowly to reveal a beautiful, flawless face underneath.

"My name is Sylvoir. I am the prime of this land - the first Elemental."