Infinity

Chapter one - Awakenings and Introductions

     "HEY KID! WAKE UP!" I woke up at the sound of my best friend's voice yelling at me to wake up.
     "mmhmmmm.... No.." I Mumbled.
     "Junior, come on, get up!"
     I gave no response back.
     "Alright then, guess you won't have any breakfast."
     "I'm up!" I sit up on my bed. "I'm up! Save me some food, I'll be there in a bit." There was a hint of drowsiness in my voice.
     "No promises kid." He left the room as he said that.

     I yawned and got up from my bed. I take my time getting ready as I smell the food coming from the outside. The air smelled damp from the rain, yet ripe with the scent of cooked vegetables and cooked meats. I finally step outside, as I see the rest of the team sitting and eating breakfast. I yawned again as I walked over and sat down on a dry piece of the table seat.

     "Well, looks like you had a nice nap. Eat up, be sure you eat all of it." A man passed me a small plate of food, the man was tall and his complexion is a bit dark, he had a strong build and no hair but a mustache and a beard to go along with it. He had symbol of two swords clashing on a arm band that we was wearing. That was Brock. As I started devouring my food, I looked around and saw the other six in my team.
     There were three young women who sat across from me, one who seemed a little older than me has long black hair and red eyes. She had a little fang necklace on her. She was a little pale, and she had a strong and healthy build, that's Kasumi.
     The other two had a strong and healthy build, but not exactly like Kasumi. One had shorter hair that went from black to dark blue around the tips, she had silver eyes and a small black cape that had a bow and arrow with a dagger on it, that's Crystal.
     The other had long brown hair, dark brown eyes and her complexion had a little bit of a tan. She had a small notepad with a pencil next to her plate. She also had a little hair clip of a wing, that's Echo.
     Then there was a young man who I was sitting next to, he's my best friend. He's a little older than me, with short brown hair, brown eyes and a small grey cape that seemed more of a little scarf, he had a strong build as well and a tan complexion as well, a little more tan than mine, that's Joseph.
     The last two young girls, one with blond hair and purple eyes and she had a little mask on her shoulder that looked like a fox mask, that's Aya, and the other girl had short scarlet hair that reached her shoulders. She also had green eyes, just like me. She had a necklace that had a magic rune symbol on it and wore goggles above her head, unlike me, who only had a bracelet that had a few magic rune symbols plus a healing symbol. Her name is Lyn, and I'm Junior.

     "Thanks for the food Brock." I left a few bits of my food on my plate and pushed it away from me as I got up and stretched a tiny bit.
     "June, you didn't finish your food. You know that right?" Brock pointed at the rest of my food on the plate.
     "It's alright, these will be my leftovers for the day."
     "Leftovers huh? You say that each day we go off trying to climb that tower."
     "I mean, it helps in a way, right?"
     "If you think that, then sure, just make sure that you have everything ready. We should be going up a few more floors today. That said, I'm off to finish getting ready." Lyn finished her food and went off to her room. Everyone followed the same action, returning to their rooms to finish getting ready. I left to my room to do the same.

     While I was getting ready, I found a little pendent of when we first showed up here. It reminded me of when I met everyone for the first time. I met them when I woke up here, it was on a lookout farther away from the town we live in, a good few miles I would say. When I woke up, my friend Joseph was resting a few feet beside me, when I sat up, I saw that the room was dark enough to hardly see anything, but I noticed that the room was filled with people, a small group of people to be exact. I tried to remember what I was doing before I went to sleep, but the only thing that I was able to remember was my name, age, personality, and the names and relationships of the people I met before I woke up in that room. I did wake up with a journal that had a few notes written in it already. The notes described my whole life, although I couldn't remember most of it. I looked around and saw a few small journals near everyone else as well. After they woke up, they all checked their journals. The questions of "Where am I?" and "Who are you guys?"  filled the room. As the panic started to rise, someone opened the door from the inside, I couldn't tell who it was who managed to open the door, or even find it. Either way, we all managed to get out of the room. It was night time, and the sky was cloudy, drizzling a little bit. I saw Joseph, and walked over to him, we silently questioned each other what was going on. Eventually, a man showed up, he didn't say anything, he only motioned to follow, everyone looked at each other in question of whether or not if we all should follow, eventually a few started to follow the strange man, the rest of the group had followed suit. 
     The Strange man led the group to a little shack like house. He informed everyone of the current situation, answered most of our questions aside from what his name is. 
     We are here due to unknown events that had taken place, it is best to be assumed that we had died and had wandered into a realm in between dreams and reality, or to assume that we have wandered into a haven in the rift. We questioned what he meant by all of that, but the Journals and the room had somewhat proven his point. Why would something that we wake up in a mysterious dark room with people we may have never met and a Journal that explains everything we did in our life and cuts off at a certain point? It wouldn't make any kind of sense. We all had no choice but to believe him. Eventually he offered everyone a choice, he gave everyone leather pendants, a sign of being an adventurer. "It's the only way to stand a chance in this world." the man said. One of the men in the group had yelled about starting a team that will be sure to survive in this world, but he only took a specific few. Half of the group had been picked by him and left, never sharing their names in the process. While they left, I had no other choice but to be with the people I'm with now. Honestly, I don't regret not being any of the one's he had chosen. Lyn had walked up to everyone who was left behind and had them recruited into her team, making her the team leader. That's all of what I remember from how we met. I can't remember what she said when we met each other, but I just remember that she recruited us all. Either way, remembering it put a smile on my face, knowing that I'd be safe with my friend and these people.

     "Junior, you done?" Aya walked carefully into my room.
     "Huh? Oh, uhhh, almost, I was looking for something." I put the pendant away in my pocket.
     "Alright, Lyn is waiting for you with the rest."
     "I'll be there in a bit." 
     "Okay!" Aya was about to leave, but then she stopped. "Hey.. Junior? What are you smiling about?"
     "I was just remembering how we all met and became a team. It made me feel like I'd be safe in this place I don't know anything about, and I'm sure you and the rest felt the same."
     Aya smiled. "Yeah, this place is pretty big and scary by yourself, you could get lost easily here. It makes me feel happy and safe that a big and friendly group like you all are here with me. It's like one big family!" 
     "One big family huh? It does kinda seem like that." I smiled a little more at the thought of it. I picked up a staff that was laying on the floor.
     "Was that what you were looking for?" Aya looked at me in confusion.
     "Yeah, it was, how could I forget my staff? I wouldn't be able to do anything without it. Aside from healing but that's it."
     "We should get going now. Lyn is going to be mad if she keeps waiting." Aya walked off ahead to the others who were waiting outside, next to where we ate breakfast. I checked to see if I had everything I needed before I left, I had a small pouch and a map on me, and I had my staff. I joined up with everyone else.
     "What took you so long?" Brock called out, he hardly has any armor on him, only a chest piece, we all hardly had any armor. Most of what we had was chainmail armor, Kasumi, Joseph, Echo and Crystal had a little more armor than Lyn, Aya and myself. 
     "Sorry about that, I almost forgot my staff. Kinda stupid, right?" I let out a nervous chuckle.
     "Well you have it now, so you won't be entirely defenseless." Joseph kinda laughed a little after hearing Kasumi say that.
     "That's a little harsh Kasumi, he's our medic." Joseph took some time before speaking again. he looked at me before speaking. "But... he IS our medic.. so it's expected that he'd be defenseless." 
     "I MEAN, most medics aren't fit for combat, at least be glad that I'm fit for said action." I was a little offended from that statement they made, but I knew that for the most part they were joking. I turned over to Lyn, "So, what's going to be our team setup for today?"
     "Well, I was thinking we switch it up from the norm. This time, Brock and Kasumi will take front, Brock will block hits and Kasumi will land them, after all, a knight and an assassin usually work together. One tanks and distracts and the other attacks with the element of surprise, you get the idea. Joseph and Crystal will pair up and do their own thing, a thief and a hunter should work out really well, no? You two are also pretty skilled aside from Brock and Kasumi, but I wouldn't recommend you two straying away from the team too much. Echo and Aya will team up together and support Joseph and Crystal, which leaves Me and Junior supporting Brock and Kasumi. Since this is a little different from the usual set up, Junior, you'll have to keep an eye out for everyone else. You do remember some of those magic skills right?"
     "You mean offensive magic?"
     She nodded.
     "Yeah, I should be able to give some kind of back up aside from healing."
     "Good, just be careful about how you use your magic." 
     "Yeah Yeah I know, can we get going now? I wanna get to adventuring again!" Aya, Joseph and Crystal all agreed along with a little giggle from Echo.
     "Alright, alright, let's get a move on then. To the tower!" We all cheered as we made our way to the tower. The tower is a place that tests adventurers like us, it's the only spot that houses monsters of any kind, according to retired adventurers, it never seemed to have an end, but they never got past a certain point either due to an unbeatable enemy, it sounded like a lot of bull to me, but it made me want to explore the tower even more. We made our way to the tower, I'm sure we were all wondering what we'd encounter this time climbing the tower...