ATWT Rewrite

I paused, looking around the guild, still confused by what she had said.

"Change this world?" I said, baffled.

"It is said that high humans will return this world to a normal state. They will restore our world," she explained.

"Restore the world?" I asked.

"Yes, due to the World Tree, our world has been divided into 100 segments, each separate and difficult to communicate with."

"But how? How did this happen?"

"A tree began to sprout and grow uncontrollably. It didn't just grow; it destroyed and segmented the world. The guild is an entity that crosses the floors and clears the dungeons. Would you like to join the guild?"

In the game, we players cross each floor by defeating the boss or completing the objective, whether that's raising money or completing a quest. However, the NPCs can't do that. The dungeons are what connect each floor. Think of each floor as a leaf or segment of the tree; the dungeons connect each of the floors together like a petiole. However, each floor is in a random location on the tower, so if you enter a dungeon on floor one, the closest exit might be floor 60 or floor 3.

I looked around, observing the adventurers as they returned to their activities., and a couple of kids, no older than 13, entered the guild, one male, one female, both with platinum white hair and gold eyes.

"So what can I do? How do I join?"

"I can send you an invite to the guild, and you can become a member," she said.

"What are the perks? And would I not be able to make my own guild or join a different one?"

"If you join the guild now, you'll get 1 gold as credit," the guild attendant offered.

"Alright, sounds good," I replied, eager to get started.

A smile formed on her face as she turned to me. "Bring the mana crystal!" she called across the room.

Moments later, a guild attendant arrived, carrying a large clear crystal ball that radiated a mystical aura. The ball seemed to hum with mana.

"Place your hand on this ball, and we'll get your Mana level and identification—all at no charge," she instructed.

I complied, placing my hand on the cool surface of the crystal ball. Suddenly, it began to pull my hand towards itself with an intense pull.

After a few seconds, the ball glowed brightly with a white light before dimming and going still. The expression on her face shifted to one of shock, her complexion paling.

"What does that mean?" I asked, concerned by her reaction.

Before she could answer, the two kids from earlier were getting their mana rated in the same manner. The crystal ball glowed bright white, then cycled through yellow, orange, red, blue, indigo, violet, and finally settled on black. The attendant assisting them appeared equally shocked.

"You have an extremely small amount of mana," she finally said, pointing to the kids from before. "The brighter the color, the lower the mana. A normal reading for high humans would be blue."

"Is that bad? What should I do?" I asked, feeling a mix of confusion and concern.

"I expected you to have more. If I were you, I'd stay away from magic classes," she advised.

In the game, there were ways to increase mana, and many armor sets could reduce mana usage, so I wasn't too worried about having low mana.

"I still don't understand how much I have," I admitted.

"How to explain this… think of it like money. You can only ever accumulate 100 silver," she explained.

"Do I need to sign anything or choose a class?" I asked, ready to proceed.

"Yup," she replied, her smile returning as she passed me a piece of paper.

"Also, I'd like to sell this," I said, handing her the core.

She looked at the broken core, inspecting it for a moment before channeling her mana into it. It glowed a bright blue.

"The best we can offer you for this is… 5 bronze," she said.

"That's fine," I replied.

"Are you sure? You could give it to a blacksmith and have it reforged into a sword. That'd be better since it's already broken."

"Oh," I said, taking the core back.