A massive shadow loomed over the increasingly busy Ta’ir, who was rapidly moving from one book to another, while constantly being interrupted by visitors to the library. Ondal sat atop a bookcase that was behind the main desk, observing quietly as he worked.
A library was a sign of great wealth and prosperity when it came to the various Frontiers that were set up during a new integration cycle. They were used as one of many indicators for great opportunities and many, even the great powers of the multiverse, considered them to be the most important indicator.
While the library’s main focus was that of sharing knowledge, their presence was also a calculated investment. If the library helped, even a bit toward the ascension of a great power, they could only benefit from it.
They might be allowed to set up a library within a force’s main territory or even be allowed to record secret manuals and techniques within their extensive repository. And even if none of that was provided, many great powers felt a debt toward the library and their protection was implied.
But none of that explains why here and now. Ta’ir thought. I can normally guess or even see a hint of why we go somewhere, but here? I just don’t see it. Is it the imminent clash? An image of the approaching galaxy came to his mind. No, that shouldn’t be enough. We would’ve established a library on their Frontier and probably gotten more out of it.
The library was not only a place for combat and cultivation, but also one for science, history and culture. It was way it was so important to so many factions.
As the arrival of the Tower of Revelation neared, the library’s doors swung open and a flood of interested parties rushed into the seemingly endless halls. Many of them were future tower applicants, some were entering a library for the first time and the rest had a myriad of reasons.
Is there something here that can greatly expand our halls or affect them in a significant way? Images of books full of knowledge from Earth began to flood his mind. He shook his head. No, their level of knowledge is common. Other then the affairs of the blades, everything is within reason… Is it the trees? But we already have three, do we need another?
The tower applicants were waiting for the first batch to finish through their own run of the tower. They, unlike Eric and those from newly integrated worlds, knew that the first batch was by far the most dangerous. It wasn’t because of the trials or the tower itself, but because of the other contestants. This free time also allowed them to cover any weakness they might not have noticed up until this moment and the library was the best place to find that out.
Others felt they were sufficiently ready and only passed the time reading whatever they wished. If they were lucky then they would even gain insights by expanding the wealth of knowledge contained within themselves.
“Follow that construct and it will take you to where you need to go,” Ta’ir said, gesturing toward a floating sphere. Taking a brief pause, he dismissed his thoughts and shifted his attention back to his books, he raised his gaze and smiled at the amount of movement that there was. “Just like it should be,” he said, his voice smooth and soothing.
“Found anything?” Ondal said. His voice, even though he tried to be silent, was loud and caused everyone to turn and face him.
“Lower your voice,” Ta’ir said turning to look up at Ondal. “And no, I haven’t.” He let out a sigh and something shifted in the air. “A broken core, no connection to the heavens and even blocked fate.” Ta’ir shook his head lightly, his long golden hair bouncing a bit. “Too many things are wrong with him. Finding anything that could help is going to be difficult."
“He can cultivate,” Ondal commented, this time no one turned to look at him. “Doesn’t that count for something? And people without a connection to the heavens or fate aren’t unheard of.” He tapped his chest. “My kind and I are one such example.”
“Yes, but you were only disconnected from the heavens and were still connected to fate, even if by proxy,” Ta’ir said, quickly turning around. Something shifted in the air once more. “Third floor and to the left.” With a nod, he turned to face Ondal once more and something shifted in the air again. “Too many things are against him. He was lucky to be able to manipulate mana as well as he did, or he would’ve died if he tried his previous leveling method.”
Both of them shuttered as they remembered what Eric had described to them.
“I say we wait. He might not even exit the tower,” Ondal said with a laugh. The air trembled but no one noticed it. “Speaking of which, were do you think he is? First floor? Second? Tenth?”
Ta’ir pondered for a moment. “I don’t know the exact floor, but my guess is that he got stuck early on. He had no time to adapt to his evolved body and with the amount of things that are wrong with him, it might be harder than usual,” Ta’ir said, explaining his thoughts.
“Speaking of his oddities… Did you notice that strange pull?” Ondal asked, his expression undecided.
“After months of feeling it and this is the first time you ask?” Ta’ir asked, raising his brow.
“Didn’t really appear relevant,” Ondal said, his expression now normal. “I’m pretty sure it was a bloodline but it was…”
“Unnatural,” Ta’ir said, completing Ondal’s sentence.
“Exactly. Why do you think that was?”
“Who knows. It ebbed and flowed regardless of how he was,” Ta’ir began, once more returning to his books. “If he’s lucky, it will help him. And he needs all the help he can get. Recent breakers barely make it to the initiate pilgrim stage before they ultimately hit a wall. And they don’t have to make do with a broken core. It’s already a miracle that he even made it to the adept stage.”
“You underestimate him too much. You were the one who was most excited. Or are you keeping your hopes in check?” Ondal said in a teasing tone. “That’s it isn’t it? You’re not talking to me, you’re trying to convince yourself.” A wide grin overtook Ondal’s face. “You’re too old for such games,” he said with a booming laugh so powerful that the air around them seemed to pop and everyone heard him and a small grin began to form. “Why else would you give something so precious as a vial of infinite essence?”
Ta’ir immediately glared at Ondal and not only him, anyone with enough knowledge had heard of “infinite essence,” its effect was simple but precious. And for someone like Eric who had damaged his core and strained his nodes, it was a treasure that was basically a necessity.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Ondal only shrugged, not surprised at what he had done. His grin grew more savage. His natural instincts rising to the surface. He needs to advance, why not try the path of beasts and monsters—endless conflict.
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With a muffled thud, Eric’s feet hit the ground as he appeared a certain distance from the ground. He immediately knew what to do even before the System had told him. “Escape! I need to get out of here!” he shouted at the top of his lungs.
His skin began to burn and flare up, his eyes began to water and every breath he took was only a prelude to a wild coughing fit. The fog was poisonous, and it wasn’t a single effect, it was multiple stacked together. The effects were immediate and unmistakable.
At first, he could feel his body fight most of the effects, but slowly they not only became more intense but also more varied. After a certain point, his bloodline assimilation began to increase, both intensifying existing feelings and making them less noticeable. It was like a chase in which the poison wanted to do as much damage before it was neutralized.
After a couple minutes of walking aimlessly and awkwardly in circles, he made it to a cave that kept the fog away in an unnatural manner. It was like the fog hit an invisible barrier. Then, the System gave its announcement.
Congratulations on completing the third floor of the Tower of Revelation.
You have entered the fourth floor: Trial of Endurance.
New quest!
Quest: Steady breathing.
Objective: Escape the poisonous valley.
Rewards: Access to next floor. +4 Reward point.
“I don’t care!” Eric exclaimed. “Why didn’t you teleport me inside the cave?” he asked the System amidst wild coughing.
There was no response.
Only taking a brief moment to recover, Eric once more ventured out. He quickly discovered that while the valley wasn’t exactly a straight line, it was a single path. So, after taking a short break to recover, he ventured out once more.
After ignoring the increasing sensations that were invading his body, he made it to a boulder that, like the cave, also held the fog back. Checkpoints? Eric asked himself as he remembered what the quest was called. Steady breathing.
He immediately grasped what he had to do. “I need to make it from one checkpoint to the next. If I didn’t have the bloodline thing, the best way would be to do it while holding my breath,” he said, once more breathing in clean air from around the boulder. “This should be easy then.”
The more he advanced, the more things he discovered about the trial. For starters, the checkpoints were becoming increasingly more and more distant. It also wasn’t a gradual thing; the increments were large and noticeable.
Upon arriving at the seventh checkpoint, he remembered something and had a realization. “The previous trials were about discovering something about my evolution. If I skip this one by powering through, I feel like I’ll be missing something in the long run,” he said to himself as he stood near the valley wall. “The question is, do I have to hold my breath or keep it steady?” Taking a brief moment to ponder the question, he arrived at an answer. “I’ll just do both.”
From the seventh to the tenth checkpoint, he did his best to hold his breath. Whenever he felt like he could no longer hold on, he would immediately retreat to the previous checkpoint. And he did notice something. “My panic is mostly instinctual. I can actually go longer than what I feel I can. It’s almost like the first floor where I still didn’t know my limits.”
With that realization, he continued until he made it to each checkpoint while holding his breath. Though realistically he did have to pause and catch his breath in between checkpoints, the distance was becoming too much.
Then, from the tenth, all the way to the fifteenth checkpoint, he tried his best to keep his breathing steady. It was even harder than holding his breath because he was actively breathing in a harmful substance. That’s when he realized something else. The fog, while poisonous, mostly had surface level effects, like irritation. There was no deep or permanent damage being done.
Or is it the bloodline? he asked himself mid journey.
He quickly got an answer when upon arriving at the fifteenth checkpoint, he encountered a mountain of bones. Or to be specific, the mountain of bones was the checkpoint. Going around the mound, he found fresher corpses. “They probably came in with me,” Eric muttered, as he analyzed them.
Eric narrowed his eyes, quickly glancing from his almost bare torso to the corpses. Soon after, he was wearing a white robe that he didn’t know if he tied properly, he simply tied it as if were a shoelace. He also took the cover that was a dull red, tying it around his waist, along with some boots. “Just in case I also fuck the rest up,” he whispered to the corpse.
After a quick examination, he noticed that none of the corpses had any jewelry or weaponry. “Must’ve already been looted.”
A short while later, with renewed vigor and thankful for whatever the assimilation was, he continued on his journey forward.
Going forward, he changed his training tactics. Keeping count as best he could, he would hold his breath and upon not being able to hold it anymore, he would continue while breathing steadily. If he didn’t last longer with his breath held than in the previous checkpoint, he would restart until he did.
Like that, he made it all the way to the thirtieth checkpoint, were the portal opened as soon as he set foot inside it. Before he stepped into the portal, he took a deep breath, realizing the changes he had undergone.
Quest complete!
Every breath he took felt fuller and more substantial than before. He has no way of knowing it for a fact, but he was sure that his endurance had also improved. Not in an increased stats sense, but more in the fact that his breathing would last longer before it ultimately faltered due to exhaustion.
“These trials are incredible,” he said as a message that ignored the System’s restrictions appeared before him.
Bloodline assimilation increased!
????????????????: 84%
----------
Tournament of the Strong: 25:13:52
Buried deep in the sand, a green humanoid observed the human encampment in the distance, taking special care to not move hastily or make any amount of noise that could be opposite of what one would expect from simple sand. Some of those humans are absolute monsters, the scout thought.
Report, a voice popped up in the scout’s mind even though it wasn’t his own.
Three figures, including the target, are making preparations, but departure is doubtful, the scout answered mentally.
Report on their departure once you have been able to discern it, the order came in the form of a voice inside his head.
Understood, the scout answered.
Time passed and the three figures in the distance kept moving from place to place, always busy, but showing no signs of leaving.
Tournament of the Strong: 22:01:25
How long are—
The scout’s thoughts were cutoff as a large knife penetrated their skull, ceasing all activity. It wasn’t just one scout, each and every scout that was keeping an eye on the human encampment from various distances and positions, were all silenced in an instant.
A green humanoid, very much resembling the scout that was just killed, removed the knife from the skull and turned to the encampment. They removed a lighter from their pocket and signaled the “all clear.” Various small lights bloomed in the darkness of the night, giving the same signal, as the green humanoids made their way back to the human encampment.
In the still distant encampment, a woman exited one of the buildings. Every figure, human and other, that the woman passed ceased all activity and at the very least gave her a small nod.
She approached the three figures, who unlike the rest, didn’t show any sort of respect. Standing there, her hand in her pocket, she and the three figures conversed. Suddenly, she turned toward the top of a building and singled someone out, urging them to come down.
From atop the building, a completely armored figure made its way toward the edge of the building but didn’t descend. With a shout and after throwing something at each of the three figures, they returned to their original position while giving them a thumbs up.
As the green humanoids approached the camp, all the figures became clearer. All of the green humanoids recognized each of the figures immediately. Once they were closer, they also shot the woman a thumbs up.
Suddenly, the few scouts that still had some activity left in their brain were bombarded.
Report.
Report…
Report!
Report!!
Tournament of the Strong: 21:54:09
