Chapter 1: Chapter 1 – The Room

Suddenly, a bright, white light assaulted my eyes. 

I opened my eyes, taking the surroundings into my vision.

Wh-Where Am I? I thought, as I looked around the seemingly endless completely white room I was in. The room, as was previously said, was completely white, and you couldn't perceive an end to it no matter how hard you looked.

As if me trying to find an end to this room was a cue, people began instantaneously appearing in the room, one after another. One second there might just be a white floor there, but the next second, someone would appear in that same spot, with no trace as to how they got there.

All sorts of people appeared, from elderly to literal babies, to big muscly men to disabled and pregnant people. Whatever seemed to be teleporting people spared no one. I only recognized a few people, that alone telling me that these teleports were not as random as picking random people across the world. Most of the people here were speaking the same language as well, with few uttering curses in various different languages.

Everybody sent here had different clothes, with varying levels of clothing too. A good portion of people had casual wear, suits, or pajamas, and few people showed up wearing swimsuits, hiking gear, and other things similar to that. Several even appeared completely or half naked.

Of course, during this whole situation, one would be filled with emotions like fear, confusion, and anger, maybe even some at the same time. That included me, as at that time, I was filled completely with fear and confusion. Fear of what brought everybody here, to confusion at how we got here.

Other people had varied responses. Some were trembling and despondent, some were looking around in confusion (same as me), some were angry, with clenched fists, and some were praising the heavens, saying something about how 'God is bringing us salvation'. For some reason, and I don't know why, a bunch of middle school looking kids had smiles on their faces.

After a while, a giant person with a pair of massive wings and a gigantic spear, wearing what looked like a toga, coughed. They were completely invisible, and their cough was really loud, drawing the attention of everyone. After a whole minute, they finally spoke.

"Alright, now that I have the attention of everyone, please listen to me. As it is necessary for the survival of your whole race." The Angel (as other people were calling it) said, shocking everyone.

"Now, I'm going to explain to everyone why you are here. A force which you may refer to as 'mana' is coming to Earth, and, in order to prepare the human race to be able to compete on the level of other races which have had access to mana for eons, we have prepared what you could call 'The Tower'. There is a tower in every major city across the world, because some unwanted accidents may happen if we force people from across the world into the same tower. Some of you may recognize this as something that has happened in novels you have read. That is where we have gotten the idea from, as we have understood it to be the form in which most of you would be most accepting of this training." They explained.

"Ok, some of you may have already figured this out, but now that we're done with the explanation, if all of you would please say the word 'Status'. It will activate something we have called 'The System'." The Angel quickly said, leaving everyone to follow their instructions.

Everybody, including me, said the word "Status" all at around the same time. Accordingly, almost simultaneously, a blue box appeared in front of everyone.

Status Name: Lucile Warp Age: 20 Bloodline: Demon Elemental Attunement: Lighting (Light Blue Variant) Class: None [Choices Available!] Equipment: None Health: 180 Mana: 34 Stats: Strength - 9 Endurance - 8 Agility - 12 Magic - 14 Skills: Unarmed Combat: Level 1 Gun Combat: Level 1 Spatial Awareness: Level 1

Ah! This is like one of those games! Why is my 'Bloodline' 'Demon' though? I thought, looking at my status.

"What you see there is an approximation of your body's current capabilities. The average base stat for a human will be 10 in everything, but this does not mean you have to have a total of 40 base stat points. You can have more or less than 40 total base stat points. All of these stats are self explanatory, excluding magic, so I'll explain how that's determined and what it does. Your intelligence represents your base magic stat, but your magic stat does not represent your intelligence. There's no way to increase your intelligence besides something we're about to do in a bit, so don't ask. Magic is your ability to manipulate mana, and you'll know what that means in a second, so I'm not going to explain that now. Skills only show combat skills as well, so don't expect to see 'Cooking: Level 1' on there or anything. Everybody here should have the skill 'Spatial Awareness: Level 1', unless you're an actual baby, which then it makes sense if you don't have it. If you don't have that skill, you probably can't even tell that there are people around you. Everybody may have noticed the three parts 'Class', 'Bloodline', and 'Equipment'. We'll get to 'Bloodline' later, and 'Equipment' only shows equipment you gain in the tower. Currently, everybody should have no 'Class', and it should say that you have choices available. So if everybody would please move their finger and tap the part that says you have choices available." The Angel again instructed.

I tapped the part that said 'Choices Available!', while ignoring everyone around me. Another blue box appeared right beside the first one.

Class Selection Warrior: The beginning on the path of Strength. Warriors use weapons such as swords, shields, axes, and hammers. They use their  superior strength to overwhelm and best opponents. Some use their superior Endurance to protect their allies. Scout: The beginning on the path of Agility. Scouts use weapons such as daggers, knives, bows, and guns. They use their superior  agility to scout out areas, outrun and trap opponents, sneak attack enemies, and attack foes from afar. Apprentice: The beginning on the path of Magic. Apprentices use staves, wands, and grimoires to better allow them to use their spells  and sorceries. Recommended Classes: Apprentice, Scout.

It seems that there are three different class options, with each of them focusing on different stats. Warrior focuses on Strength, Scout focuses on Agility, and Apprentice focuses on Magic. Looking at my stats, Scout and Apprentice indeed seem to be the best options. Magic is something new, and it seems like something that would be hard to learn. I don't know what magic does, and I can probably use magic while being a Scout, while I probably can't do Scout stuff while I'm an Apprentice. So even though I have a higher Magic stat, I'll choose Scout. I reasoned, tapping the option that said Scout. All of a sudden, another bright light flashed, on top of my clothing this time, and they got replaced with what looked like a combo of both plain black cloth shirts and pants, plated with leather at the joints and around the chest and forearms areas. A new blue box appeared, replacing the first one.

Confirm Selection? [Yes]                       [No]

Yes. I tapped on the Yes button.

Class Selected! Please choose 2 weapons!

I closed the blue box with the little 'X' at the corner, and a new one appeared.

Weapon Selection Dagger: A wooden dagger. Throwing Knives: A set of three wooden throwing knives. Short Bow: A poorly made wooden short bow, along with 20 wooden arrows and a quiver. Long Bow: A poorly made wooden long bow, along with 60 wooden arrows and a quiver. Note: You can pick the same weapon twice, excluding the Short Bow and the Long Bow, and the Long Bow takes both weapon slots. Not all weapon types are available as starting weapons, and you can unlock them later, such as guns. You are reading story The Angel’s Tower at novel35.com

It seems that the weapons that the Scout class is able to pick are mostly ranged weapons, with a dagger for close range. If I want to be able to maintain a distance from my enemy, while at the same time being able to flee if anything goes wrong, I should probably choose the Short Bow and a Dagger. The Long Bow seems big, I might not even have enough strength to shoot with it, and I wouldn't be able to do anything if my enemies got close to me. As for Throwing Knives, I also don't know how to throw knives, and they don't seem particularly interesting anyways. As I finished pondering about what weapons to pick, I decided upon a Short Bow and a Dagger. I tapped on Short Bow and then I tapped on Dagger.

Confirm Selection? [Yes]                       [No]

Yes. I again tapped on the Yes button.

Instantly, a bow along with a quiver teleported onto my back, and a dagger inside of a sheath appeared attached to the belt at my waist.

I looked around, and it seemed that everybody else was wearing the same cloth and leather clothing I was, there were only very minor differences in the clothing, such as the color or placement of the belt. The weapons seemed to vary however. Some people had only one weapon, such as a Great Sword, a Battle Axe, a Great Hammer, a Long Bow, a Staff, a Wand, and a Grimoire. The Wand seemed to be only held in one hand, and the Grimoire seemed to just float in front of the person who had it. The Grimoire itself was just a brown leather book that floated for some reason. There was also a book sheathe(?) attached to the belt of the person who had the Grimoire, with a leather latch on top of it to keep it safe.

Another good majority of the people here had two weapons (3 Throwing Knives count as one weapon) such as a Sword and a Shield, two Daggers, a Dagger and 3 Throwing Knives, a Short Bow and a Dagger (like myself), a Short Bow and 3 Throwing Knives, and straight up just 6 Throwing Knives. Every single weapon that people had was wooden, besides the Grimoire.

After this, I decided to look at my status again, to see what has changed.

Status Name: Lucile Warp Age: 20 Bloodline: Demon Elemental Attunement: Lighting (Light Blue Variant) Class: Scout Equipment: Starting Clothes, A Wooden Dagger, A Poorly Made Wooden Short Bow, A Leather Quiver, 20 Wooden Arrows Health: 180 Mana: 34

"Ahem!" The Angel coughed, "So, now that most people have finished selecting their class and weapons, let's explain what has just happened for people who can't seem to associate one thing with another. If you would look at your status, you'll see that your 'Class' has changed to whatever you picked. Then if you look at 'Equipment', you'll see that the first thing to show is the armor you're wearing. Everybody has the Starting Clothes. Next is your weapons, and then your accessories, and then ammunition, and then miscellaneous items. Ok, now, finally, we're getting to 'Bloodlines'. This is the last thing I have to tell you, and then you can continue off into the first floor. 'Bloodlines' are whatever blood of another race you have in your body, they'll grant you buffs to certain stats, and you might even gain some skills. If your bloodline says Feline then you have cat blood in you, if it says Canine, it means you have dog blood in you. We're not going to tell you how these bloodlines are determined, so deal with it. I'm going to activate your bloodlines in a bit, and it may hurt. For most of you without any 'Bloodline', this won't affect you."

The Angel then snapped their fingers, and it echoed for seconds. Abruptly, I felt intense pain all over my body, particularly in my head and eyes (which I know is part of the head). I brought my palms to my eyes and collapsed onto my knees. The pain lasted only about two seconds before gradually stopping. I put down my hands and then looked at the people around me. The first thing I noticed was that everyone seemed to be glowing with various different colors. Some people were glowing red, yellow, blue, green, purple, to black, basically any color you could think of, besides pure white for some reason. It seemed only one in 10 people got affected by the Snap. The most notable changes in the people who got changed were animal ears, tails, and wings. It seemed as if people like me, who (probably) only got their eyes or some other body part cosmetically changed, were in the minority of the people who changed, who were already in the minority.

"Alright, so you people can talk amongst yourselves and discuss your Status. My job here is done, so I'm going to leave. You'll be teleported to the first floor in about 5 minutes." The Angel started to walk into the distance, which was really weird because their body was invisible, so their clothing, spear, and wings were just floating away. This seemed to set people into a frenzy, as people swarmed around the people who had the most significant changes when the Snap happened (mostly the girls with animal features).

The Angel seemed to be muttering to themselves about something, which was albeit pretty loud, as they themselves were massive in size, "Oh, right, I forgot. We erased all of their memories of their own identity and of the people close to them."

Conveniently said it out loud huh? I thought to myself as I got off of my knees. I once more looked at my status, to see the changes to my stats and skills.

Name: Lucile Warp Age: 20 Bloodline: Demon Elemental Attunement: Lighting (Light Blue Variant) Class: Scout Equipment: Starting Clothes, A Wooden Dagger, A Poorly Made Wooden Short Bow, A Leather Quiver, 20 Wooden Arrows Health: 210 Mana: 37 Stats: Strength - 12 Endurance - 11 Agility - 15 Magic - 17 Skills: Unarmed Combat: Level 1 Gun Combat: Level 1 Spatial Awareness: Level 1 Mana Sight: Level 5

It seems I gained three points in every stat, and I gained the skill Mana Sight at Level 5. I analyzed, looking at my new and improved Status.

"Yo! Blonde girl who clutched her eyes and fell onto her knees when that Angel guy Snapped!" I heard a man call out from behind me.

I turned around, noticing a black haired, purple eyed man waving his arm while running towards me. He seemed to glow a bright purple, he had both a Wooden Sword and Wooden Shield on his back, and his Starting Clothes were black. The man stopped running when he reached about 3 feet in front of me. He seemed to be the same height as me, '5 "10, as I was '5 "10. He put his hands on his knees and bent down, panting for breath. 

"Hey!" He said, putting his arm up, with his pointer finger pointed upwards. He got up, put his arm down, and then continued, "Can you stop staring at me for a second? It's kind of creepy with those red eyes of yours, and creepy is not what I signed up for when I ran over here."

Wait what? My eyes are red? Aren't they blue? I thought, while looking at this man skeptically.

I then responded to him in a forceful, questioning tone, "My eyes are not red! Also, why did you come over here, and what is your name?"

"Oh, right! I should've started with my name." He said while putting his hand behind his head, "My name's Isaac. I ran over here because we both have black Starting Clothes. I didn't see anybody else around me who had black Starting Clothes. Your eyes are also %100 red, were they not like that before?"

"No, they were not like that before. Have you actually seen anyone who naturally has red eyes, besides albinos?" I questioned while turning my head away while still looking at him.

He responded back, "Uh, no, I guess you're right. Does anything about me seem off? I also underwent that extreme pain when the Angel guy Snapped."

Just as I was about to respond to him, another bright light suddenly appeared, drowning out my vision and hearing.