Welcome to the tower

He then headed towards the path behind the mountain and began to climb little by little. After a while, he heard a noise behind him, which made him look in the direction. He then saw that just behind him, several other participants also seemed to have found the path.

He thought, 'Damn, I thought this might happen, but they found the path very quickly.'

Rohan started up the path as fast as he could, and the other participants did the same. Coming after him as fast as they could.

After a while, Rohan reached a part of the mountain that was steep at the back, too. Although it wasn't as steep as the front part of the mountain, it slowed him down enough for the other participants to catch up.

Seeing how close the others were to him, Rohan thought, 'Damn, they're going to pass me like this. I need to focus on getting up this mountain as quickly as possible.

He then began to ignore the people behind him and focused solely on climbing the mountain.

After some time, he suddenly saw something out of the corner of his eye, and as he looked in that direction, he realized that a person had caught up with him. This person was none other than Mai, which made his eyes widen.

Rohan thought, 'Where did she come from? I don't remember seeing her behind me.'

Mai then said, "Excuse me. I'll lead the way. There's a green rune waiting for me." and continued up the mountain, overtaking Rohan.

Seeing this, he thought, 'How come she's climbing so fast? No, it doesn't matter. I have to do something. Otherwise, all this effort will be for nothing.'

Rohan began to think quickly about what to do, but with every second that passed, Mai moved further away from him. He kept thinking of a solution as fast as he could until, at one point, he had an idea and thought, 'I believe this is the only chance I have of getting past her. She'll probably be furious based on the reaction she had last time, but I'll deal with it later.

Rohan then said, "Wait a minute, Mei! Don't leave me behind."

On hearing this, Mai suddenly stopped and then looked down in Rohan's direction.

She then said, "I told you not to call me by that name!"

Rohan said, "Oh, I'm sorry, it's just that the two names are similar, so I have trouble remembering which one is right, Mei."

"My name is MAI!"

"Hello? What did you say, Mei? I couldn't hear you. You're a bit far away. Let me come closer so I can hear better."

Mai was furious to see him calling her Mei again, so she grabbed a rock as if she was going to use it to continue up the mountain. She then pulled it off the mountain, knocking it towards Rohan.

Seeing this, Rohan quickly moved to the side, narrowly dodging the stone, and then said, "Hey! What was that, Mei?! Don't you remember that the guards said it was forbidden to fight?"

Mai said, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. I was going to use this stone to climb up, but it suddenly detached from the wall."

Rohan thought, 'Are you really going to pretend that you didn't do this on purpose?', and said, "... All right, just be more careful. You almost hit me."

Mai said, "Okay, I'll be." She then grabbed another stone as if she were going to use it to keep climbing, pulled it out of the wall, and threw it towards Rohan.

He then swerved quickly again and looked in her direction to complain, but before he could, she said, "Oh, I'm sorry. It looks like the rocks on this part of the mountain are loose. I'll try to be more careful, but if I were you, I'd get out from behind me so there's no accident."

She then turned around and started climbing the mountain again while throwing a few stones in Rohan's direction from time to time.

Seeing this, Rohan started trying to climb while dodging the rocks, but he failed. He even had to climb down a bit to dodge some of the stones.

He then thought, 'Damn. My strategy has turned against me. Now, there's no way I can get that green rune. I'd better get down at once.

He climbed down the mountain and looked towards the top. He saw that Mai was about to reach the green rune and said, "It looks like the rune will be hers in the end. Well, I'd better take advantage of the fact that most of the participants are still here to look for some more white runes."

Rohan then headed into the forest, away from the mountain.

...

Some time passed, and Rohan had arrived back at the city gate. He had managed to find three more white runes, making a total of six white runes in his possession. That was enough for him to sleep in the most basic room and eat once, managing to save one rune for the next day.

He headed towards the gate, and when he arrived, he noticed that two people were standing there, apart from Hes.

As he got closer, he realized that they were Welli and Mai. He then thought, 'Hm? What are those two doing at the gate?'

Rohan arrived in front of the gate, and Welli was about to come and greet him when suddenly Mai advanced towards him, pulling him by the collar of his shirt and saying, "You! It's all your fault!"

Rohan was confused and said, "Hm? What are you talking about?"

Mai said, "I lost the green rune because of you! If you hadn't provoked me, I wouldn't have wasted time climbing the mountain, and I would have taken it!"

"You didn't get the green rune?! Who did?"

Welli then said, "I did." and then stretched out his hand to show the green rune.

Rohan's mouth dropped open at the sight, and he said, "That's right. I'd forgotten that people were climbing up the front of the mountain. It's good that you managed to get the rune Welli."

Welli was about to reply, but before he could, Mai said, "What do you mean 'good'?! That was my rune!"

Rohan said, "Yes, you're right. It WAS yours, but unfortunately, it isn't anymore. You're welcome."

Upon hearing this, Mai became furious and said, "You'll regret this!"

"Wow, I'm scared. What do you intend to do? Hit me? Oh, that's right, fighting is forbidden here. Too bad."

"There are other ways to make you pay for this. Wait for me."

Mai then let him go and soon passed through the city gate.

Rohan tidied his shirt, and Welli approached and said, "Hahaha, looks like you've gotten into a lot of trouble because of me Rohan."

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"Didn't you delay her so I could get the rune?"

"What? No, I was trying to get the rune myself, but I failed miserably. At least you were the one to get it."

"Hahaha, that's true. How many runes did you get at the end of the day?"

"Six white runes."

"Only six? I got eight white runes. With the ones left over from yesterday, I have ten white runes."

"I should have gotten more, but I'm too slow. Even though I saw the light before the other participants, they got to the rune before me in most cases."

"Well, that's a shame, but at least you got enough to get you through the day."

"That's true."

The two headed towards the gate. When they arrived, Rohan handed Hes five runes and said, "I'll have the most basic room and a meal."

Hes said, "Okay, what about you, Welli?"

Welli said, "I'll have the same. Only two meals instead of one."

Hes said, "Are you sure? Didn't you find a green rune?"

"Yes, but because I spent so much time on it, I only managed to get eight more white runes. So I don't have any runes left over to get a better room or more meals."

"Of course you do. The green rune can be converted into white runes."

"Really? How many white runes can I get with one green rune?"

"I'll show you the conversion table."

Hes then took out a piece of paper and showed it to Welli and Rohan.

"Rune Conversion Table"

"Blue rune - 5 white runes"

"Green rune - 50 white runes"

"Red rune - 500 white runes"

Welli and Rohan were amazed, and Welli said, "A green rune is worth fifty white runes?!"

Hes said, "Yes."

"Hahaha, in that case, you can make the exchange, and I'll have the best room and three meals for Rohan and me."

Rohan then said, "What? For me? Why is that?"

Welli said, "What are you talking about? Even though I didn't mean to, I only got this rune because of your help. Of course, I'm going to share some of it with you."

"Well, if you say so, I won't refuse but think about it. It wasn't easy to get this green rune, and it won't be easy to get more."

"Hahaha, don't worry, Rohan. Haven't you seen the table? Even if I don't get any more green runes, I can always exchange the white runes for them."

"Hm, you're right."

Hes then said, "You're wrong."

Rohan said, "What do you mean, Hes?"

"There's no such thing as converting white runes to runes of other colors."

"There isn't?"

"No, and the same goes for the other runes. The only possible conversions are the three shown in the table."

"I see. In that case, you'd better cancel the conversion Welli."

Welli said, "Yes. I thought as much."

Hes said, "Are you going to cancel the exchange?"

"Yes."

"Okay. You can go on to the shelter then."