PICK ME UP, ANOTHER LOBBY!

"Surrender!"

Trudy shouted as she pointed her sword to the collapsed Jyrgil.

As the fairy said, the duel would only conclude once one side admitted defeat.

Instead of submitting to Trudy, though, Jyrgil spat blood to her leather boots.

He tried to reach for his axe beside him.

Responding the resistance, Trudy pressed her foot onto Jyrgil's chest and swiftly pierced her blade into the man's right shoulder, pinning him still on the ground.

"Garrhh!"

The giant man cried in pain.

"That's it, Trudy! Nail that bastard!"

Shanny shouted from the sideline.

"Surrender now!"

Trudy demanded once more.

Jyrgil still did not give in. He continued reaching for his axe with his already-injured arm.

Seeing his resolve, Trudy plunged her sword deeper.

The wound on the shoulder was getting worse that the man's entire right arm was about to be severed from his body.

"Arrghh! Fine! Fine! I surrender!"

Jyrgil shouted finally.

With the sound of his submission, Trudy quickly pulled her sword, relieving the man from his excruciating pain.

She leaned down closer to Jyrgil's face.

"Just so you know, the three others in my party are way stronger than me. So you should just stop being so arrogant and listen to what Serafina has to say."

Trudy told the giant man she just defeated.

Angered by her humbling words, Jyrgil snatched his axe with his left hand and quickly rose up.

"Die, you bitch!"

He tried to swing his axe toward Trudy as she was exiting the duel cage.

Trudy quickly readied her shield to block the underhanded assault.

Crash!

Before Jyrgil's axe could even touch Trudy's shield, an invisible force suddenly pushed Jyrgil back to the ground.

The force was so powerful that the hard tiled floor beneath him was cracked apart.

"My, my, my! I believe the duel was over already!"

I said as I walked into the cage while maintaining my telekinesis spell on the defeated 3-star.

I waved my hand upward and caused the giant man to float to the air.

"If you are so eager to keep fighting, I'd be glad to take you on."

I moved my other hand and made Jyrgil's axe flew to his neck, its giant blade was so pressed against his skin it started trickling with a trail of blood.

"How about it? You said you wanted to fight a mage. Why don't we make it happen?"

I asked with a smile.

{Hey, witch! Stop that! Even if it's you, you can't do that!]

The fairy suddenly appeared, reprimanding my threat to the mercenary.

"Well would you look at that? Saved by the fairy."

I said while disabling my spell, causing Jyrgil to crashing back to the ground.

As he struggled to get up, I spoke to him.

"From now on, you will listen to what we say. You will train and fight, but you won't go around causing trouble for others, you understand?"

Jyrgil did not reply me and remained quiet.

I enchanted his axe once more and made it hover near his neck.

"Didn't you hear me?"

"F-fine! I'll do what you say!"

He answered finally.

"Excellent. Now hurry get out of this cage before you bleed to death."

Without saying anything, Jyrgil limped out of the duel arena. His wounds immediately healed once he stepped out.

Now that Jyrgil had lost in a duel against Trudy, he would not be so arrogant and erratic anymore.

We could begin directing him so he would work to our advantage when climbing the tower.

"Wow! Did you see that?!"

Zecht reacted from outside the cage.

"That lady with the sword fought well, but that mage lady is on a different league."

Darius said.

"She's definitely not just a pretty face."

Norn added.

Though I had expected them to work well with us, the other 3-stars had also grasp the power distribution in the lobby.

It would be easier now to ask for their cooperation in climbing the tower.

[The new 3-stars, listen up!]

The fairy appeared in front of them.

[Darius, Jyrgil, Norn, and Zecht! The four of you are allowed to live in the second floor of the lodging. You can also use all of the facilities. So make sure not to disappoint master from here on and get us to the top of the tower!]

She said before disappearing.

Her words left some confusion to the group.

"Top of the tower? What did she mean by that?"

Zecht asked.

The others seemed to have similar questions as well.

"Alright! It's time for you to learn what we're supposed to be doing here."

I told them.

Given what just happened in the duel, they immediately quieted down and looked at me.

They knew my words were worth heeding to.

"Pay attention. Because what I'm going to say next are important."

I said to the 3-stars.

For the next while, the other members in Party 1 and I explained to the 3-stars about the lobby and the tower.

We told them that we were here to serve a master and to fight battles, which they already knew.

But we also specified to them that we had this tower we needed to climb and that there were a hundred trials we needed to overcome to get to the top.

We filled them in on how high we had climbed so far and how difficult the trials could become.

Last, we explained to them all we knew about the lobby.

From the lobby's healing power, to the status and mission windows, the synthesis and the summoning chambers, the rift of space-time, the Weekday Dungeons, the duties in the lobby, facilities and living arrangement.

It took a while, but we managed to make them learn what we knew so far.

"100 floors, huh? A hundred trials to go through."

Zecht commented.

"You said we've only reached the fifth floor? We've still got quite a lot to climb."

Darius said.

"Strength, intelligence, agility, stamina? Levels and skills? So what's written in this floating black box tells how strong I am?"

Norn asked as she looked through her status window.

"So if I level up, the numbers on this box gets higher and I'll be stronger? But I can only level up by completing trials or have master synthesize others with me?"

Jyrgil confirmed.

From their words we had become certain they had understood the circumstances they were summoned to.

It was time to do actual work.

I looked to my comrades in Party 1.

"Time to do Shanny's suggestion earlier. Ready yourselves."

With those words, they understood my intention.

They nodded back to me and promptly entered the caged arena.

I looked back to the 3-stars.

"Alright, now all four of you, step inside the dueling cage."

I instructed them.

"Why?"

Zecht asked.

"We'll be fighting together from now on. One of you will even be joining Party 1 to clear the trials and climb the tower. Before we do all of those, however, we need to know just how strong you guys are."

I explained.

Norn formed a confused frown.

"Pretty lady, you don't mean…"

I turned to the dueling cage. Inside there, Jonah, Shanny, and Trudy were ready with their weapons.

"What else? Party 1 will have a fight against all of you, mercenaries."