Sitting in the corner, I felt my body heating up. Something was happening; my skill tree was getting excited and started shivering. I kept my eyes open, looking at the Seraph and Levi who were conversing. I could see their lips moving and yet was unable to pick up any bits of their conversation. I suspected that a spell was being used to block the sound waves.

My vision blurred and I once again could observe my sprouting skill tree with its three leaves. The leaves trembled happily. The skill tree was excited and shared its joy with me. My body felt warm and ticklish and yet, this feeling was rather comfortable and appeasing.

Judging by the skill tree’s reaction, the process was a success; it was going to benefit from the brown paste and I was going to improve my affinity with the Healing element. Affinity was a very vague term. It was the equivalent of talent and aptitude; it had absolutely no effect on the strength or mana cost of spells or mana recovery in general. It only had an impact on the growth rate and potential of an individual. The higher my affinity, the faster I could expand my mana pool and advance to the second circle. Whenever I would absorb mana from mana stones, a portion of the mana would be lost in the process but the higher my affinity, the lower the losses. The leaves of my skill tree would also grow faster and allow me to use the spells in more versatile ways.

I could feel that something was happening to the skill tree but there were no visible changes. There were still three leaves and one shoot. Their size, shape and colour did not change at all. Nevertheless, the skill tree was overjoyed by the effect of the brown paste.

The changes did not take place on the surface but rather underneath the surface. The only non-visible part of the skill tree was its roots. The ground was trembling slightly around the skill tree, showing that something was moving under the surface.

…

I lost track of time; watching the skill tree growing was a captivating sight. I felt the temperature of my body dropping, a sign that the brown paste has now lost its effects. The skill tree also seemed content of the growth it experienced. It flashed a few times to thanked me before the scene in front of my eyes became blurry and darker. I was returning to reality.

When I opened my eyes, I could not help but jump in fright. I tried to take a step back but felt the hard wall of the room against my back. I gasped loudly.

The Seraph was standing a few inches away from me, carefully observing my actions with interest. “Are you done?”

“Y… Yes.” I blurted out. Even though he was not emitting any aura, just the seraph’s presence was intimidating. After blinking a few times, the Seraph finally moved back to a socially acceptable distance.

I heaved a sigh of relief. ‘Was he going to attack me just now?’

“Human. I am not going to gamble my life for the meagre things you have. That paste of yours is only effective if used by people with almost no affinity to an element. It is useless to me. I don’t know what else you have in your storage belt but I can recognise a protection amulet when I see one. That amulet would have bought you enough time to use your rights…”

My eyes fell on the amulet attached to my belt as I bit my lips. “Is Levi already gone?” I asked with a dry cough to change the topic.

“Indeed. He left while you were meditating. You would not have met him again anyway since the guides are asked to stay away from their host for a few months upon reaching the first floor.” The Seraph answered calmly.

An awkward silence settle between us. I felt like a lab rat being examined by the Seraph and wanted nothing more than to leave this place. “Then, since I am done with this, may I now go to the first floor?”

“I cannot stop you from leaving even if I wanted to. I have other humans to greet too… This job is such a drag… I’ll leave after the first ten thousand. The rest can learn from their earlier peers. Before you go, is there any question you would like to ask about the tower?”

I shook my head and hastily headed toward the exit door. The Seraph watched me with an amused expression but made no move to stop me.

As soon as I walked through the door, the scene around me changed completely. I found myself standing in the middle of a road. Around me were endless acres of wheat fields waiting to be harvested.

I glanced behind me but found no traces of the room I just exited. ‘As I expected. It was a different space created by a spell that was connected to this place. The Seraph must have simply cut the connection to this place after I left.’

I heaved a long sigh of relief. Now that the Seraph has left, I could think as normal. I no longer needed to restrict myself. ‘It should be fine now. Advanced creatures are rather rare and the seraph should have left to meet another human. He did say he would meet ten thousand.’

I fell into deep thoughts. ‘Is that the reason why I did not meet a Seraph in my past life? I took much longer to reach the first floor and maybe the Seraphs had already left. The reason they came to meet the humans in the first place was only to distribute these rights.’

My eyes shone as I thought about the three rights I had just obtained. They were valuable tools that worked like wishes with a specific function. They appeared quite frequently in my past life as they were the main weapons that could be used against the already well-established races. I always wondered where these rights came from and now, I finally found the answer.

‘I am the 99th person to come here, huh? Maybe I am just not as fast I thought I was. Still, these three rights would come in handy in the future. Looking at the pattern, there should be a total of five different rights. I remember that there was also the Right to Live which was probably given to the first ten humans since more than one appeared. As for the unique right given to the first human, I have no clue what it can be.’

I took a deep breath and observed my surroundings. There were no creatures or enemies into view. The first floor was considered as one of the most peaceful floors of the tower. Its official name was the Fertile Grasslands. It acted as a large farming field that fed a large portion of the population of the first ten floors.

There was a small signpost on the side of the path, showing me the direction to take. Nevertheless, I completely ignored the signpost and took a few steps inside the wheat field. I lay down and forced myself to calm down.

I had been on the edge for god knows how long. While my body was able to physically rest inside the Seraph’s space, my mind had been extremely active since I ran from the Tombs of Nazlock. Mental exhaustion washed over my body as I let myself enjoy the calm and peacefulness of this place.

I took this opportunity to reflect on my decision to leave the zeroth floor. There were so many opportunities I left behind in a hurry as I escaped. I had the option to take things slow and potentially collect all the treasures of the zeroth floor. Doing so would have also not forced me into alienating a hundred other hunters. But was that really what I wanted?

The treasures all served on purpose; to create the strongest individual who will be capable of conquering the entire tower. But I was not interested in doing so. I just wanted to live peacefully in the cities. Claiming ownership of these treasures would only give the humans an excuse to have me join the frontline. Furthermore, how could it be easy to hide a treasure from the alert eyes of the advanced creatures?

Therefore, although it was a pity that I let go of these treasures, it did not feel like a loss to me. My current situation was much more desirable to live a peaceful life. I was stronger than the average human but was definitely not the strongest. I had advanced to the first circle but in the end, only had one element. I did not make the best choices but I did end up with an advantageous position.

There was a reason the position of the second-in-command was preferred over that of the leader. Similarly, why did people prefer to classify themselves as upper-middle class instead of high class? It was because people liked to be in an advantageous position without standing out too much. Humans were selfish; they wanted power but at the same time did not want to shoulder responsibilities. I was no different. My decisions brought me a lot of benefits from the zeroth floor but not enough for me to stand out and become the target of the other races.

‘I must keep my greed in check. The treasures and power in general are very alluring but I have to keep in mind that I wanted to move away from these struggles in the first place.’

I continued to lie down on the wheat grass for a while. I crossed my legs, feeling relaxed and delighted to have come here earlier than I expected. This peaceful experience was completely different from what I experienced in my past life.

In my past life, the fields had already been harvested at that time and there were many sentries guarding the floor. They were officially here to make sure the humans did not misbehave and target the small villages scattered across the floor but these sentries also took the opportunity to bully the humans. They asked for bribes, instigated fights and overall worked on worsening the reputation and teamwork of the humans.

Fortunately, this time, I would not have to experience this since I came here extremely early. The cities should not have noticed the arrival of the humans yet.

After resting for a brief moment, I finally got up. For the first time, I examined my body. It felt no different even after my affinity with the Healing element increased. I would only notice a change once I would come across Intermediate mana stones and start expanding my mana pool again.

I glanced at the post sign. There were a few arrows to indicate the directions to take, the name of the destination and the distance to the destination.

“Looks like I am in luck. Tussock is only five kilometres away.”