With all the influx of information in the last dozen minutes, Baam had somewhat lost track of the things he was supposed to check. It would've been nice if he could somehow access the information that popped up

[History:

- Unlocked [Path to Godhood] feat of strength.

- 10 Free stat points to distribute. ]

Let's check this path to Godhood, Baam thought, as gaudy as that title seemed.

[Path to Godhood:

A God exists only because people believe in them. As you rally sheep to the flock, your power and influence grows.

Current number of allies: 4 (1)

Currently revered by: 0

Bonus:

- 4% increase in all stats.

- 0.4% increase in stats gaining speed

- 0.4% increase in skill training speed

Skills - Locked

Designer Points available: 1 ]

A screech from the engine as well as some shaking that made the flying vessel tip precariously on one side, while the pilot announced that they would be there within two minutes.

Baam closed the screen. What are designer points? What were they used for?

[FAQ:

- What are Designer Points?

- How can I earn Designer Points?

- What can I buy with Designer Points?

….

(Search ended up with 308 results, selected 3 most relevant ones) ]

"What are you thinking so hard about?" Khun said, his gaze leaving the window showing a vast palace and inner court with luxurious gardens and blooming flowers.

Baam shook his head and smiled gently. "Just trying to organize my thoughts. It's all very novel to me."

Khun chuckled and nodded. "I can guess that. The noble families are quite voraciously guarding information about the happenings in the tower. Not really an Omerta, but something quite alike. Information in this world can be worth more than gold. You can't save your life with coins if you fall into an ambush and the bandits don't accept it, you can save it by avoiding the ambush altogether with foreknowledge."

Baam could understand the wisdom behind the words. He beamed. "You're smart."

Khun sighed but flicked Baam's forehead, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly. "And you are too naive for your own good."

"Come now turtles, it's not mating season yet!" Rak's voice boomed as he stepped off the plane, ripping the metallic door like wet paper. It seemed like wherever he came from, door handles did not exist. Neither did doors, probably.

Khun spluttered indignantly, his cheeks becoming an interesting shade of pink. "I was not hitting on you." Khun said, just to make sure.

"What's mating? Of course you were not hitting me, why would you? We're friends, right?" Baam asked innocently.

"Nobody ever told you about the birds and bees?" Khun asked incredulously, the color fading slightly.

"I read about them in a book. What do birds and bees have in common, besides flying?"

Khun slapped his forehead. He was not having this talk, not now, and hopefully not ever. Rak was grumbling outside so Khun simply told Baam he would explain later, and also jumped off the plane.

Baam cocked his head. Was there some subtext he was missing?

He followed them outside and was greeted by the blinding light of the sun and flashes of color from his peripheral vision. There was a path made of carefully hewn stone, which Khun told him was a special kind of marble, and it was tastefully decorated by some square gardens, artfully dotted with thousands of vibrantly colored flowers, and sprawling trees with perfectly cut branches and not one leaf out of place. Birds sang and the trills of various animals reached them, as some more exotic creatures like Ghost Foxes passed through trees, and even Shinsoo Eels jumped out of the many ponds intermittently with neon, checker-patterned fishes caught in their huge maws.

The gardens were separated from the path by fences, flanking it. Midway from the landing spot to the Khun Examination Center - which looked more like a palace-mansion hybrid - a huge fountain poured out some kind of liquid. It was not really water, it was much too thick for it to be, almost viscous in its consistency.

"It's a Shinsoo fountain," Khun answered his unasked question. "Having a drink from it will refill your strength and wash away any fatigue. Extravaganza has always been a leitmotiv of the Noble Houses. It costs more than an average person could earn in a hundred lives."

"You don't like it?" Baam asked. He felt something like scorn in the voice.

"There's nothing to like or dislike. It's this way, and it's not gonna change anytime soon unless someone claims his head." Khun resumed walking, Baam following quickly in his steps while Rak was off the side, trying to spear the fishes swimming in a pond with his weapon and an unconscious application of Shinsoo. It was a kind of fishing technique native to his island.

"You said his head. Who is he?"

Khun slowed down slightly, tilting his head to the side as a small, sad smile stretched his lips. "You're awfully curious. It's better if you stay ignorant of these kinds of businesses. Besides, it's not your responsibility to fix it."

Off the side Rak was being attacked by a Shinsoo Jay, some kind of mutated Blue Jay - only green in color - and a Mother Shinsoo Eel joined in the fray, harassing him. The seaborn predator was twice the size of Rak, forcing him to quickly cut his losses.

Baam felt strangely affected by the words. He only wanted to know what made Mr. Khun uncomfortable. He always looked as if he had too much weight on his shoulders. But he was right.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to be so…" He couldn't find the right word.

Khun laughed and shook his head. "Don't worry, it's nice that you care. But you should be more worried about the test awaiting us. You will meet him in any case, when we reach the upper floors."

Baam nodded resolutely.

Rak jumped over the fence, displaying stunning nimbleness and agility for someone his size. The Shinsoo Jay was still clenching the back of his head, trying to bite off his head, but the alligator was thick-skulled so it merely had its beak wide open, its body tilted on the side, the upper part and lower part of his jaw each resting on the left and right side of Rak's skull respectively. Rak grabbed its neck, pulled and held the creature in front of him, roared to make it understand who was the better predator, and the creature fled in fright.

"Alright, lead the way, turtles. This place is tricky," said Rak, trying to catch his breath after his recent strenuous activities.

"There's a fence for a reason, crocodile. Whatever, the sooner we get this done with, the sooner I can get rid of you," Khun said, shaking his head despondently.

Ignoring the complaints pouring out of the grey-skinned crocodile's mouth like the Shinsoo out of the fountain they just passed by, Khun, Baam and Rak were stopped at the entrance to the manor. Not physically stopped, or ordered to by someone. There was a giant, heavy looking, though finely decorated door, and no door handle.

The door was simply locked and a painting on the massive gold-gilded door, shaped like a lightning bolt was there in lieu of the door handle.

"It's not a measly door that's going to stop a Wraithraiser!" Rak grunted, his muscles bulging and his spear clenched in his hand. He dropped his weapon then, and took a standard punching stance, his dominant foot in front. Gyrating his hips to give him impulsion, he cocked back his fist and launched a devastating haymaker.

"I wouldn't do that if I were-"

"ARGH!" Rak screamed bloody murder, his body shocked with a high voltage when his fist made contact with the door which, predictably, did not budge an inch. He fell to his side, twitching intermittently.

"...you," Khun finished. Once again he lamented his choice of teammates. Baam was ok, but the crocodile on the other hand… Well he probably had redeeming qualities, he shouldn't judge too harshly, though thinking things through did not seem to be his strong suit.

"What's this sign on the door?" Baam asked.

"A protection sigil. Khun Ran's father, probably, or someone of his faction. They're the ones mostly dealing with raw electricity for containment, non-lethal purposes."

"How are we supposed to get to the testing area then?" asked Baam.

"Ah," Khun said, his eyes creasing in contemplation. "You misunderstand something slightly. This is the testing area. No, more than that… Let me tell you the purpose of this floor. It is made as a kind of pre-recruitment by the Noble Families. Each of them look for a quality, and this is done to find vassals once the regulars ascend to their own domains, at the top of the tower. Of course, they would not purposefully offer vassalage to somebody not sharing their qualities, the ones they value. So each of them look for one particular quality in potential candidates. The Arie family would look for someone proficient with bladed weapons. The Po Bi Dau, someone with affinity toward simultaneously Shinsoo handling and also a keen mind for research."

"Then what 'particularity' does the Khun family look for?" Baam asked, helping Rak get back to his feet, nearly collapsing when the guy's weight fell on his shoulders, as the Wraithraiser faltered in his step. Finally Rak shook his head and managed to stand, a little nonplussed but not disheartened. He now saw the door as a kind of powerful predator you need to be wary of.

"Being a douchebag," Khun answered with a serious face. He cracked up and cackled when Baam took him seriously. "I'm joking, gosh, you're unbelievable. We value coldhearted determination and cleverness. We all tend to be highly proficient Jeonsulsa too. Lightning wielders. As you saw the lightning symbol on the door," Khun nodded toward it.

Baam nodded. This made sense. "Then how are we supposed to get inside?"

"That's the million coin question. There is something strange. If I remember correctly, Khun Hachuling is in charge of administering the test right now. His particularity is that… he's a huge geek. I mean, he really, really likes playing video games and is quite proficient at it, to boot. The original idea was to have this stage as a kind of playing field to solve a mystery, to test the challenger's wits and mettle."

"What kind of mystery?"

Khun shrugged. "Closed room murder, escape game, it could be anything, really. The baseline is to solve the mystery. I'm not close enough to him to know what kind of game he set up."

"Closed room murder? Oh. It explains that." Baam said as if something made sense. Khun frowned.

"Explains what?" A suspicious, nagging feeling began to squirm its way inside Khum.

"When we were on the 'plane', I felt a huge heat and pain, but then it went away. I thought it was weird, then I received a notification that I died and-"

"Alright, alright, I messed up, shoooorrryyyy" A childish, whiny voice cried out from the other side of the door, as it was pushed open.

A streak of blue and white blurred passed Khun and Rak and glomped Baam. It was weird to see an adult sobbing and holding him like a teddy bear, but Baam took it in stride and awkwardly patted his back.

"I wuz not s'possed to kill ya but the spaceship program is an auto-adaptive artificial intelligence, and it was only supposed to put everybody to sleep while I set up the crime scene, but it classified you a threat and then it went Kaboom and - wait, how are you still alive?"

"You died?" Khun asked, now processing fully what Baam said.

"What's a notification?" Rak asked simultaneously, tilting his huge reptilian head.

Baam was overwhelmed with all the questions pouring out of the three males.