When Daniel opened the door, the first thing that came to greet him was a warmth that had nothing to do with temperature or weather, but rather a feeling that he felt inside himself.
A soft yellow light had filled the living room. The smell of fresh food hung in the air, and the quiet sound of Alice and Tiana’s conversation flowed through the walls.
For a brief moment, Daniel stood there, not because he was tired, but because this space was peaceful, a place where he didn’t need to fight.
In the past three months, he had been more or less at peace, but had he experienced such a feeling during all those three months? No, not exactly to this extent.
It was as if, after all that trouble and hardship and problems, his family could finally be at peace, even if only for a short while.
He had forgotten such peace for a long time, a peace that made it so he didn’t need to think about anything or worry about anything.
He took a step and entered.
"You’re back early." Liana, who was standing by the table tidying something up, said without turning around.
It was clear that as usual, she expected her son to come back late, but it seemed like tonight they could finally all be together after a long time.
"My work is done." Daniel closed the door.
"Now that I think about it, I feel like our first floor was much harder than yours." Alice, who was sitting on the couch, lifted her head. Her gaze still had that same spark, but beneath it... hidden exhaustion.
"Ours wasn’t easy at all, but he fought against a B-rank." Tiana, who was half-lying down, said under her breath.
Daniel sat down near them. His gaze shifted between the two. He could see the change, not just in their power, but in their eyes. Both girls had changed more or less after conquering the first floor.
Clearly, their power had increased. They had received rewards from the tower, and their abilities had grown even more than before.
But the change wasn’t only that; it was their confidence that had increased tremendously, but on the other hand, because of the hardships they had endured, their pride was under control.
"On my level? I don’t think so. If you had faced what I faced, you wouldn’t have survived." He then replied sarcastically.
The two girls gave him a predatory look, and Alice even stuck out her tongue. It was clear they didn’t believe their brother’s words at all.
There was no way anything could be harder than their first floor. Even with the power they had, they had almost been killed.
They were sure their brother was just trying to humiliate them.
"Anyway, were you scared?" Daniel changed the subject when he saw that his words weren’t being accepted.
"Yeah." Alice was silent for a few moments. Her gaze went somewhere unknown. Then she took a short breath.
This was their first experience of the tower, their first real battle experience. More or less, because they knew that even if they died, they wouldn’t actually die, they were psychologically comfortable.
But that didn’t reduce the terrifying atmosphere. They really and truly had to fight to survive.
"But we didn’t run away." But she immediately smiled.
Daniel didn’t say anything, but in his mind, he built the image.
Darkness, the sound of creatures moving at an unknown distance, lack of resources, eyes that don’t dare to close.
Their floor was a kind of survival test. A dark forest where each night was worse than the previous one, and that was the biggest difficulty for them because they had never had such an experience before.
"The first day, we thought we just had to kill monsters..." Tiana added.
And more importantly, for the first time, they killed something other than monsters.
"We were wrong." She gave a bitter smile.
"The rule was simple. If you survived ten nights and found the forest’s energy source, you passed." Alice said.
The issue was finding that forest energy source, a place where mana emanated. Unlike normal states, mana didn’t exist naturally but emanated.
And they had to find that source. But it wasn’t an easy task. Every night they had to try to survive the corruption beasts, and after that, they also had to fight against the other players.
And during this, they also fought against several of the native people on that floor and were forced to kill them. Alice had accepted this easily.
But for Tiana, it was a bit hard.
"Enough. Eat first." Liana came out of the kitchen and put the plates on the table.
Everyone sat around the table.
Daniel quietly picked up his food, but his gaze was more on the others than on his plate.
Liana looked carefully at the girls. As if no matter how much she looked at them, she couldn’t find peace from seeing them.
"Did you make any friends?" Then she thought of something and asked with a smile.
"A few. Another team helped us." Alice shrugged.
"If they hadn’t been there, we might have failed." Tiana said.
"So there are still good people." Liana gave a faint smile.
"Or they just didn’t want to die alone." Alice laughed.
The atmosphere became a bit lighter.
Tiana told a story about one of their mistakes, when instead of hiding, they had mistakenly made noise and drawn half the forest toward themselves.
Alice interrupted her and corrected her.
Liana listened with a smile.
And Daniel just watched.
"This... is good." The thought passed silently through his mind. But at the end of that thought, there was something he himself didn’t fully look at.
These moments weren’t permanent, and God knew when they might have such a peaceful night together again.
"Next plan?" Daniel asked.
"Second floor." Alice said without hesitation.
"But not now. We’ll get more prepared." Tiana quickly added.
"A good goal. But don’t rush too much. Review your experiences from the first floor and try to at least reach the peak of C-rank or close to it." Daniel nodded.
The two girls nodded. These were exactly the recommendations their teachers and guild leader had given them.
Time passed quietly. The light in the house dimmed.
Tiana was the first to fall asleep. Alice also became quieter after a while, her eyelids heavier, and she peacefully fell asleep.
Daniel and Liana watched this scene in silence.
"I have to go."
"Take care of yourself." Liana hugged her son and said.
Daniel didn’t say anything and just stayed in his mother’s embrace for a while. After that, he said goodbye and left the house.
The night air was cool.
The city still had its scars, but under the moonlight, everything seemed calmer. He disappeared from his spot and then appeared in front of the tower.
In the distance, it stood like a massive shadow in the sky.
Daniel walked toward it. When he reached the entrance, he stood for a few seconds. Then he put his hand into his inventory. He took out several objects.
Keys.
This decision hadn’t been made today. He had already planned to come to the tower and had prepared the keys during these three months.
His gaze fell on the tower gate for a moment, then he stepped forward and entered.