Zoe rolled over again; she had done it so many times that night that even if she was keeping track, she would have long lost track of it by now.

  “Fuck guess I’m not getting any more sleep tonight.” She said as she sat up, her eyes looking out the window as the sun began to rise. She glanced over at the spear that lay alongside her bed.

  The damned thing was going to cost her almost 80,000 credits all in all. “Whatever without it, there was no way I could even try to clear the first floor.”

  She grabbed her phone and checked the time, six twenty, she still had a while before she needed to head to the entrance. On the plus side, she had no training till then.

  She glanced outside once more She thought as she got up and began to get dressed.

  As Zoe stepped into the open air of the courtyard, she felt a chill run up her spine. It was colder than she expected, at least that is what she told herself.

  As she walked around, she noticed how empty it was, not much of a surprise given how late it was, but she had gotten used to how busy it was during the day, it seemed almost creepy at this time.

  “Here, are you sure?” She heard a feminine voice ask from around a corner,

  She shot against the wall, feeling the cool bricks on her back as she moved slowly, She thought.

  Slowly, she went to creep away, but she could not bring herself to move, something felt off. It was like walking down a dark alley with someone following a few steps behind.

  Then another voice called out. She recognized it was Vince.

  “Yes, right here will do well,” his voice echoed despite being in space where that should not be possible.

  She knew it was a bad idea, but she could not stop herself from looking around the corner.

  Red, blood red eyes. She saw staring back at her as Vince leaned forward, his mouth over the girl's neck.

  Zoe’s heart raced.

  Her eyes were wide.

  She needed to do something, anything.

  But she could not even bring herself to move. As something deep inside her screamed, warning bells.

  Then Vince bit down, and the woman went limp.

  Finally, Zoe managed to get her legs to move as she ran toward them. Her right hand curled into a fist.

  Her fist shot out toward Vince’s face.

  Blood shot out of his shoulder and took the shape of a large ribbon. Then it wrapped around her fist and squeezed tight, stopping her in her tracks.

  Zoe opened her mouth to scream, only for the ribbon of blood to wrap around her mouth next.

  She thought as she felt the blood ribbon bind her other arm.

  Vince slowly looked up as he removed his fangs from the girl's neck. “Why are you interrupting my meal? Don’t tell me you're one of those vampires that does not think we should drink from other sentients?”

  Vince looked at Zoe’s rage-filled eyes for a moment, then let out a sigh.

  “Lovely, a hypocrite. Now, while I would love to kill you, that would be such a hassle, and our progenitor would be pissed, so let's do this.”

  Vince reached forward and planted his pointer finger on her forehead, and looked right into her eyes. “You never saw me tonight, nor did you see anything that happened here.”

  She felt her mind slowly fade as if she had fallen asleep.

  “Now return to your room, you have a long day ahead of you,” were the last words she heard before her eyes closed shut.

  Zoe blinked rapidly as the sun shone in her eyes. She quickly looked away and rubbed them. Zoe was standing in the center of her room. She reached up and rubbed her eyes. She felt a pain in her head as the worry seemed to disappear. She thought as she looked out the window, rubbing her head.

  Zoe glanced down at her desk and saw her phone. Quickly, she picked it up to check the time. She rubbed her head and quickly grabbed a change of clothes and began to get ready.

  After she was done getting ready, it was eight, so she spent the next hour doing some studying before heading out, grabbing her spear as she walked out the door.

  She moved through the courtyard, then out onto the streets of the city, heading for where the entrance to the first floor would open.

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  Zoe stepped around a corner and saw a large crowd standing around a large statue of the tower. She looked back down at her phone. She had about half an hour before the invites would be sent out to those in the zone.

  She thought as she leaned on a wall, hiding in the shade of a nearby building. Zoe watched as the people arrived, Many of which were in uniforms like hers. A few were fully kitted out with armor and clearly expensive weapons.

  By the time that the invites were about to be sent out, it was more crowded than any concert or convention she had ever been to, not that she had been to either before, given how broke she was in her last life. But there was a good reason for that. The tower only sent invites to everyone within a certain range of the center of the tower, on the bottom floor of the tower, and it only did that once every 6 months.

  “Hay Zoe!” Ivan called out, Zoe quickly looked over, seeing him move through the crowd over to her.

  “You're cutting it close,” Zoe said with a smile.

  “Nah, there is still five minutes left. You just got here early, I bet. “

  “Not that early, only like nine or so.”

  “That is like the definition of early, you know?” Ivan rubbed the back of his neck. “Anyway, looks like the countdown is starting.” Ivan held out his fist. "Good luck in there.”

  “You too,” Zoe said as she reached out, fist bumping Ivan.

  “I hope so, and Zoe?”

  “What's up?” Zoe asked.

  “You'd better come back alive.”

  “Same for you.”

  The last moment seemed to hold on forever, then she blinked. It had appeared. She had seen it hundreds of times in webcomics and even more in webnovels, the system! A blue Window appeared before her, She thought back to the small tidbit she learned from Ms.Divisk during one of her many side rants.

  [Would you like to move to floor 001?]

  [Yes]

  [No]

  Zoe smiled, turning to Ivan, watching as he disappeared before she selected yes herself.

  The world began to spin around her.

  Twisting inward until it was a blur of color that melted together until it was black.

  Then it began to untwist, but she found herself somewhere different: a large open field with nothing but a large rolling hill with grass covering it. There was not even a hint of wind, and the humidity felt strange, like it was fake. But more than that, the sun was not a real sun; she was sure of that. It did not make her feel the same feeling at all as the sun on the bottom floor.

  Zoe unclipped her spear’s sheath and shoved it in her bag, which she dropped to the ground.

  Once more, the window appeared.

  [First trial: Beyond Emotion]

  [Description: This Rabbit has no desire to hurt and, in fact, is locked in place. But it's either you or it.]

  [Completion condition: Bound rabbit 0/1]

  [Failure condition Time limit: 000:01:00]

  [Reward: Move to trial two]

  [Penalty: Death]

  Zoe watched as the blue light coalesced into the shape of a rabbit before it became one. Its fluffy white fur with beady red eyes looked into her soul, and she let out a quiet ”Please don’t make this harder for me.” As she walked over to it, the creature just tilted its head, looking at her, unmoving.

  She raised her spear and then stabbed it into the head of the rabbit, ending its life in one strike.

  She thought she had been warned that the first was easy, but it always played to one's sense of emotion.

  She turned away as the rabbit turned into blue motes of light.

  [First Trial: Beyond Emotion | Cleared]

  [Secant Trial: The Hunt]

  [Description: This Horse wants you dead. Kill it, or it will kill you.]

  [Completion condition: Kill the Enraged horse 0/1]

  [Failure condition: death.]

  [Reward: Move to Trial three.]

  Zoe readied herself as the horse just appeared. Clearly, the slow spawn was a one-time thing.

  The horse took one look at her and then charged.

  Zoe pulled her foot back and kept her eyes on the horse. The horse’s ears were bound back then it charged, raising its front legs to slam down on Zoe.

  As the legs came down on Zoe, she froze for a moment too long. She forced her body to dive out of the way. She felt her body roll a few feet down the hill before she managed to get back on her feet.

  But before she could really think, the horse was charging down at her.

  This time, she was ready and swung her spear in a wide arc. She thought the swing would only just have clipped the horse's legs, but she was wrong, it was deeper than she expected. It let out a screech of pain, but it did its best to keep running, going down the hill, plus the pain of the cuts and its mindless aggression was too much for its body, and it slipped and fell to the ground on its side.

  That sealed its fate.

  As it fell to the ground, Zoe scrambled out of the way, then spun around and stabbed her spear through the horse’s head with a crunch.

  [Second Trial: The Hunt | Cleared]

  [Third Trial: The Apex]

  [Description: You have overcome prey now show you can overcome the peak of normalcy. ]

  [Completion condition: Kill The Apex Wolf 0/1]

  [Failure condition: death.]

  [Reward: Move to Trial Four.]

  Zoe quickly ripped the spear out and began to look around. The tower was not giving her any time to rest. She thought, then her eyes found it.

  It was as far as it could be, standing over by the large white wall that blocked her in. The wolf was almost as tall as Zoe, and it was proportioned to match.

  Zoe thought as the wolf’s head turned to look at her. It began to walk forward slowly before beginning to circle Zoe.

  Zoe’s eyes never left it, slowly rotating her body with the wolf as it crept closer and closer.

  A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead.

  Then she blinked, and for less than a moment, the world was black.

  In that moment, the wolf moved, leaping forth, aiming at her neck.

  Zoe moved, a moment too late. She felt the beast’s fangs tear into her left shoulder.

  Then it ripped its head back, most of her shoulder still in its mouth, as Zoe let out a blood-curdling scream as her grip on her spear began to falter.

  She bit down hard, forcing her scream down as she forced her hand to bite into the spear, then thrust forward with every bit of power she could muster.

  But the thrust only grazed the wolf’s pelt, a small trickle of blood flowing out as it coiled its body back before shooting forth once more.

  Zoe realized, so she didn't. As the wolf ripped into her leg, she fell forward and opened her mouth and bit down into the wolf's body. She thought as she felt the wolf's warm blood begin to flow into her mouth rapidly.

  It tasted rather bitter with a little bit of a savory undertone.

  She felt her shoulder begin to knit itself back together, the pain turning into an intoxicating worm feeling throughout her whole body. The wolf thrashed around below her until it managed to force Zoe to let go. Then it jumped back full force, clearly drained.

  “What you can dish it out but can’t take it!?” Zoe said with a wide smile as she picked up her spear. Then she moved using the power that flowed through her body to move blindingly fast. Then, with one strike, her spear pierced the wolf’s forehead before it could react.

  The wolf’s body slowly began to fade, the same blue motes as both the rabbit and horse had done.

  [Third Trial: The Apex | Cleared]

  she thought

  Zoe let out a deep breath and whipped her mouth as she looked at the new widow that appeared.

  [Fourth Trial: An Oddity]

  [Description: An apex beast from your world could not stop you. Now start from the bottom and rise once more.]

  [Completion condition: Kill a slime 0/1]

  [Failure condition: death.]

  [Reward: Move to Trial Five.]

  Zoe looked around, trying to find where the slime had appeared. She saw it rolling down the hill toward her slowly. The grass melted in its strange gelatinous body as it did so. The bright red core in the center of its body it’s clear weak spot.

  Zoe thought, stretching her shoulder. Slimes were not hard monsters to kill for anyone using a bladed weapon, but now a blunt weapon? You are going to have a hard time. But given she had gotten almost the worst things to fight up until she would take it.

  As it got in range, Zoe pulled back her spear and thrust forward, stabbing through the slime's core with ease. She watched as it melted into the ground.

  [Forth Trial: An Oddity | Cleared]

  [Fifth Trial: Your Equal ]

  [Description: Until now, you have faced that with no mind, now face one that has one.]

  [Completion condition: Kill the goblin 0/1]

  [Failure condition: death.]

  [Reward: Clear of Floor one, Unlock of status window, ability to return to floor Zero(Can not return to floor One after use), More rewards to be given based on the number of extras cleared Trials.]

  Zoe thought as she quickly pinpointed the goblin. She readied her spear, and she felt the boost from the wolf's blood had worn off. Zoe thought back to the guidebook she had studied with Ivan and his friends.

  She looked over the goblin, then stopped when she saw the broken rusty sword in the goblin's hand. Zoe held her still, waiting. She needed to make the goblin move first, then she would end it with one move, after all she had the range advantage.

  The goblin moved forward cautiously, then ran forward. Zoe’s spear pierced through the air into empty space. The goblin’s charge was a faint as it moved to the side, then jumped, aiming to stab its sword into her stomach.

  But it was far too slow, and Zoe managed to swing her spear in an arc, sending it flying onto its back. Giving her the time to get over to it and bite into its neck, draining all of its blood.

  [Fifth Trial: Your Equal | Cleared]

  [Rewards distributed.]

  [You have a 15-minute break before the next trial starts.]

  Zoe smiled as she sat down on the grass and smiled. she reached out her hand. “Stats.”

  [Zoe Rose]

  [Rank: E]

  [species: Human/Peasant Vampire]

  [Inscription: None]

  [Skills: None]

  [Traits: Blood Addiction, Minor Sun Weakness, Blood Filled Regeneration, Strong Mana Veins]