Chapter 2 - First Test

Turning around, Lumen saw two humans, and a weird-looking creature walking up to him.

The creature's skin color was pure white, and he was wearing blue shorts and a blue sleeveless hoodie. His head resembled that of a rabbit, except that it didn't have eyes. It only had a slit resembling a mouth on his face. The creature also had blue orbs embed in his hands and feet, and it was carrying a staff that had the same blue orbs on each end.

The two humans with him were a female and a male one. The male one was very short and was wearing a green explorers jacket and green pants. He had white/silver hair and carried a backpack that was as large as him. Nothing that impressive, considering his short stature.

The female human was exceptionally beautiful. Lumen had to admit that she is the most attractive woman that he has ever seen. She looked slightly shorter than him with piercing red eyes. Her hair reached her ankles and it was tied in a ponytail with a red stylized fascinator on the left side of her head. Her clothing consisted of a white long-sleeved jacket, black shirt, red tie, red skirt, and black leggings. She said something to the smaller human next to her while pointing at Lumen, but he didn't understand a word she said.

"I just sent off one Irregular, and another one pops out right after." The white creature chuckled, in the same manner, Loki did, annoying Lumen in the process.

"Nevertheless, I welcome you to the Tower young man. My name is Headon, and I'm the Guardian of the First Floor of the Tower. What is your name young man?" Headon asked.

"My name is Lumen." He responded to the rabbit-looking creature.

"So tell me Lumen, why have you come to the Tower?" Headon questioned.

"I came here since I was promised a grand adventure." Lumen said with a grin.

"A grand adventure? Hahaha, that's something I haven't heard in ages. Well, I can guarantee you climbing the Tower is an adventure like no other." Before Headon could say anything else, he was interrupted by the beautiful woman. Again, Lumen had no idea what she said since he couldn't understand her language.

"Ah, you are correct, Princess. I almost forgot for the second time today." Headon chuckled and a black marble appeared in his hands. He flicked it, and the marble appeared in front of Lumen.

"This is an E-ranked Pocket. It's a device that provides a variety of functions that aid Regulars and Rankers in the Tower. One of those functions is to enable the owner to understand the different languages spoken in the Tower by translating them all into Macsethian." Hearing the explanation, Lumen took the marble with his hand, and he felt the Pocket binding itself to him. After binding to Lumen, the marble simply floated next to him.

"You could also make it invisible by focusing on it saying 'Invisible mode'." Doing as told, the Pocket disappeared from view. Despite that, Lumen still felt it's existence.

"What an interesting little thing." Lumen said.

"Now that we got that out of the way. I think it's about time we get started with your test. Unless you want to get kicked out of the tower that is." Headon smirked.

"Nah, I would like to see what's so special about this tower." Lumen answered him back.

"Haha, the Tower is definitely special. Whether you are looking for wealth, immortality or absolute power, you will find them all up there." Headon said while making gestures with his hands. Afterward, he walked up next to a wall.

"We are missing one of our objects for the test, but we will make do with what we have." Headon tapped a wall with his staff. With a rumble, the wall slowly lifted itself revealing what's behind it.

There a cage stood with a weird blue substance inside it that almost resembled water. A giant eel with wings was swimming around in the blue substance. The eel's body was red, and it had a steel-like armor covering it from the middle up until its head.

"Wow! Is this what Sea King looks like?" Lumen questioned in surprise.

"I don't know what a Sea King is, but that's a White Steel Eel. They live in highly dense Shinsoo environments, like the one you are seeing." This time it was the beautiful women that explained. She then turned towards Headon. "What are you going to make him kill it now?"

"That's exactly my plan," Headon replied while grinning creepily.

"You really don't like letting Irregulars climb the Tower. Even though this one looks a little bit more handsome and has a better physique, Evan said he feels no special power from him. Even Regulars from the 20th floor would have trouble killing a White Steel Eel." The black-haired woman complained to Headon.

"I simply give suitable tests for Irregulars. It's his choice whether he wants to take it or not, Princess Yuri. So what do you say, Lumen?" Headon chuckled.

"So this substance is not water? And does the eel have any special abilities." Loki had told him that he wouldn't have a problem with water, but Lumen didn't want to experiment with his life to test if it's true or not. Nevertheless, he was excited since this was an opportunity to test out his Devil Fruit abilities.

"Despite being a Divine Fish, the White Steel Eel only has a strong physical body with no special powers. While Shinsoo is a substance that flows through and is produced by the Tower. In lower concentrations, its density makes the substance act like a gas, but in higher concentrations, it behaves like a liquid." This time the silver-haired dwarf answered.

"Perfect!" Lumen exclaimed and started moving towards the cage.

"Are you crazy? Why would you give your life away just for some stupid adventure?" Princess Yuri got in his way and stopped him.

"Princess Yuri, I hope you are not planning to interfere in this test as well. You already did it once, and I can't allow you to do it again. Please stay out of this." Headon told her with a friendly, yet threatening voice.

Since Yuri was standing right in front of Lumen, he got a closer look at her. Observing her up close, she was by far the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. Her face was perfect and her red eyes made it even more alluring. She also had just the right proportions to her body.

"Princess Yuri is it? How about me make a bet. If I pass this test, you will go out on a date with me." Lumen asked her with a smile. He was confident that he would be able to kill the beast since it didn't have any special powers. Yuri is also exceptionally beautiful so it's a win-win situation.

The Princess was momentarily surprised by Lumen, but she responded with a wide grin. "You haven't even entered the Tower officially and you are already courting a Princess of Zahard? You are just as daring as Urek. I like that, but what will I get if you don't pass the test?"

"If I don't pass the test I will die or be kicked out of the Tower." Nonetheless, he didn't think that he will be killed by the eel. After all, he has a Logia type of fruit.

"So you have nothing to give in me, is that what you are saying?" Yuri questioned.

"You can just say you are scared to lose." Lumen told her with a playful wink.

"Me scared? You're on. Let's see what makes you so confident." Yuri pouted and moved out of his way.

Before stepping into the cage, Lumen put his hand in to test out if he will lose his powers. Feeling no drain on his power, he stepped in fully inside the cage.

Once inside, the Shinsoo felt like water yet not. Despite it being in a liquid-like state, it didn't prohibit his movements in any way. Being surrounded by the substance, Lumen felt like a fish in the water. It was a very weird feeling for him, but he didn't hate it.

As Lumen entered the cage, Yuri turned to Evan."What do you think his chances are. What do you see?"

"I don't see anything. I believe he has no chance of killing the eel." Evan's answer caused Yuri to frown.

"What is this? Is a Princess of Zahard getting worried over a male?" Headon ridiculed her from the side.

"Mind your own business rabbit." Hissed Yuri

The White Steel Eel was angry that it's previous prey not only injured him but also escaped as well. Seeing a new one entering the cage, it felt excited at the chance of filling its belly, and immediately rushed him.

Since he was in an unknown environment, Lumen didn't plan on showing all of his powers, unless it is necessary. With this in mind, he planned to use only his Logia fruit for the time being.

The three Logia types that he had selected for the Lucky Roulette were: Goro Goro no Mi, Yami Yami no Mi and Pika Pika no Mi. The one that he received was the Pika Pika no Mi, granting him the ability to create, control, and transform into light at will.

Seeing the White Steel Eel rushing at him, Lumen raised his hand in a finger gun hand gesture and gathered light in front of his fingers. Aiming at the eel's head, he fired a light beam at it. "Pow"

Unfortunately, since it was his first time using his Devil Fruit power, the beam missed its mark. Rather than hitting its head like intended, the beam hit the eel in it's left-wing. The beam easily went through the wing like a hot knife through buŧŧer. The White Steel Eel screamed out in pain of nearly having his wing cut off.

"Evan, didn't you say he has no chance?"

"Princess..."

"Evan, didn't you say you saw no special powers in him?"

"This..."

"What kind of a Guide are you, if you can't even see that?" Evan felt like crying from Yuri's bullying. He really didn't sense anything special from Lumen and started doubting his abilities as a Guide.

Headon was also surprised at seeing the light beam. He felt that there was something wrong with Lumen, but he didn't know exactly what. The only unnatural thing is that he didn't have a fate. "Ah, so that's what it was. Even the previous Irregular had a fate tied to him, and yet Lumen doesn't." Headon thought to himself.

Since he didn't kill the White Steel Eel, Lumen didn't give it any chances and prepared a second attack.

"Pow." He fired off another light beam and this time he didn't miss. The attack landed right on its armored head and drilled a hole. The eel screamed in pain but didn't die. Since it felt threatened by the powers of the human, it increased his speed to the max and rushed at him.

Lumen was having fun using his Devil Fruit power and couldn't wait to test out his other two Devil Fruits. Unfortunately, now was not the time since he had didn't feel comfortable at showing them off here.

He brought his hands together and focused even more light in front of his fingers. The White Steel Eel felt the power that was gathering in the human's hands and tried his best to reach him. Just as it reached him, Lumen smiled said. "Boom"

This time, the light beam was twice as large as the previous two. The moment the beam touched the eel, it disintegrated its head. The beam continued and hit the wall behind, causing an explosion. Small parts of the wall even crumbled and fell off.

"What the heck?" The three spectators were all surprised at the power of the beam. The walls of the Tower are reinforced with Shinsoo so they are very hard to destroy.

"Another monster has appeared." They all agreed on that comment.

Lumen feeling pleased at his powers, turned around towards Yuri with a smirk. Just as he was about to say something, he felt something tugging him and disappeared from his spot.