As Eric finished going through all the events that had taken place for him to get to where he was, he took the final bites of his meal. Once he was finished, he picked up what little mess he had made and put it into his storage.

  “I’ll throw it out later,” he muttered to himself.

  This was something that was already ingrained in him and he didn’t even question what motivated his actions. Cleaning up your own mess was just something that everyone was obliged to do.

  Once he was done with his meal, he walked through the destroyed tree branches, vines and leaves, searching for the bodies of the dead. After little less than an hour, he ended up with seven more storage rings, three of which were broken. He would’ve scavenged their clothes and weapons, but the level of destruction that they suffered was too much.

  Making his way back to where he ate, a small protruding branch that basically formed a bench, Eric rummaged through the storage rings and looked for clothes. He had some in his own storage, scavenged from previous floors, some of it was even bought, but it was never a bad idea to have more.

  “Especially since I consistently find myself with all my clothes destroyed in some fashion.”

  Through his rummaging, he found old style clothing and futuristic clothing, but nothing modern that fit his specific style, which was basically black jeans and a t-shirt.

  Resigned and with no options, he chose the inner layer of a white wuxia robe and cut it as if it were a shirt. It was incredibly thin and loose, but he wanted something normal. One of the futuristic rings had a black jacket, with certain attachments on the back and arms that made it look bulky. Cutting off the bulky attachments, the jacket looked far more normal, if a bit damaged.

  For pants, he used loose wuxia style pants that he found in abundance. His only other option was some skintight ones from the futuristic rings. And finally, for shoes, he took a pair of boots from the futuristic rings. They were an odd combination of tennis shoes and boots, the bottom half of them being too bulky and short. But when he began to put them on, they stretched, becoming more form fitting.

  Feeling like he had done everything he needed to do, he was about to bring out the orb and essence once more, ready to finally find out what each of them did. But as he was about to send mana toward his storage, he heard a rustling sound from behind.

  Turning immediately, Eric didn’t see anything, but all his senses were on alert. He had just been ambushed, so even if he wanted to ignore the sounds and do as he wished, the most basic of his instincts refused to do so.

  Then, there was a slight whistling sound that he could barely make out. Turning to the source of the noise, Eric barely managed to dodge an arrow that was aimed at were his eye would have been when he turned, though he didn’t grasp that.

  “Shit. I took too long,” Eric said with his teeth clenched.

  Scurrying around the ground and moving from side to side, Eric made it to the portal. If his attackers could have seen the portal, then they would have made an effort to stop him from getting near it, but they couldn’t so it only appeared as if Eric was scrambling to get away.

  ----------

  “Are these enough?” Ondal asked, faking a tired expression as he added more books to the stack that was beside the counter.

  “Yes. For now,” Ta’ir answered.

  “For now? What do you—”

  “Are you sure that he’ll die in the fifteenth floor?” Ta’ir asked, cutting off Ondal’s complaints.

  Ondal stared at Ta’ir for a second, his stare almost becoming a hostile glare. With a deep breath, he calmed himself.

  “He has no combat experience, at least not at any that is appropriate for the level that he is at now,” he began to explain, resting his arms on the counter. “I would say that he is at the bottom of all the tower challengers that are currently in there with him. But the fifteenth trial, as you know,” he gestured toward Ta’ir, “is where things really get difficult. Even I almost died when I entered the tower the first time.”

  “I gave up on it,” Ta’ir said, his gaze high as if reminiscing.

  “That’s exactly what I mean,” Ondal added. “It’s supposed to be the first major obstacle for people that know and have prepared for the tower. Eric had literally no time to prepare for anything. And...” Ondal opened the book that followed Eric. “He just entered the fifteenth floor. I guess we’ll know if he made it or not in the next few minutes. Let’s just hope he ended up near the edges.”

  Ondal began to tap his fingers against the counter while Ta’ir just looked at him, his face slowly turning into a frown.

  “What?” Ondal asked, confused.

  “What do you mean what? You’ll have to go and get him. You started this whole mess,” Ta’ir said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You started this mess. If he manages to make it out alive of the tower, I don’t expect that those watching the tower will stop to ask him if he still has the infinite essence or not. So, when the time for him to exit nears,” he looked at the hourglass on the counter while also looking beyond it, “ which is soon, you will sit outside of the tower and wait for him,” Ta’ir commanded, his expression unwavering.

  ----------

  Eric stumbled a bit forward. He had entered the portal while scrambling forward, so he had some momentum that he couldn’t stop even if he wanted to. His hands rubbed against hardened dirt, barely causing any of it to lift.

  “Wait can I stop momentum from affecting me?” he asked himself, suddenly full of curiosity about how far his body’s control went. But before he indulged said curiosity, the System interrupted him.

  Congratulations on completing the fourteenth floor of the Tower of Revelation.

  You have entered the fifteenth floor.

  Beware. Every five floors an obstacle that will test your limits will be presented before you. The trial is so great that there is no need for further quests, and you will be given 20 Reward Points upon completion.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  Would you like to continue? Yes/No

  Eric stood still for a second, reading the message and really trying to internalize it so that it didn’t just go over his head and he missed something important about it. He was sure that there were clues in the phrasing and in the very fact that it was asking him if he wanted to continue or not.

  “Something that will test my limits and it’s so difficult that I don’t need to do any other quests to get the twenty points. Hmm… That doesn’t really tell me anything. The previous System message said that every floor would be harder than the last, and I really only felt a bump in difficulty on the last one. Well, the eleventh was pretty hard.”

  Eric was still somewhat on alert because of the attack he had suffered just before using the portal, and the System message was getting scrutinized because of said alertness. But what he said made sense, to him at least.

  “Though, now that I think about it, the floors that were easy were easy mostly because I had the healing to fall back on,” Eric muttered, looking at his hand while he clenched and unclenched his fist. “But now that I think about it, didn’t I get a new one?”

  Eric brought forth the status screen, but no matter where he looked, or how he thought about trying to summon the relevant screen before him, nothing appeared. He had never given it any significant thought, but now that he had officially acquired a bloodline, and that there were still no changes in his status screen, a thought came to mind.

  Are the bloodline screens not part of the System? No, that can’t be. I saw the messages of the assimilation increasing back on the tenth floor. What’s the deal?

  Feeling that this was another of those questions that were best left for the future him, a him with more knowledge and resources, he let the topic settle in the back of his mind. Instead, he began to analyze the new one he acquired.

  “There were less question marks on the new one. And as soon as I got it, everything that Anna did began to make much more sense,” he said, reasoning things through. “It was like I got a translation book that allowed me to further understand her actions. Which is odd, considering that the movements themselves weren’t all that mysterious. But that’s irrelevant right now. The important question right now is whether to continue or not. To start, where am I?”

  Looking around, he found that he had entered a dark hallway with a giant stone door with intricate carvings before him. Behind him, the hallway extended far enough that darkness enveloped it. It was then that he realized that the hallway was a mixture of hard rock and carved stone. The giant stone carving that obstructed Eric’s path had a small division in the middle, giving them a faint appearance of doors.

  With his head firmly set on the giant door before him, Eric spoke. “This is a boss room. There is no way this is anything but a boss room.”

  Looking at the carvings, Eric tried to gleam any hints that would allow him to guess what he would be fighting. But to his great misfortune, the carvings were either too alien for him to understand, or they were simply for aesthetic purposes, thus, they had no meaning. Regardless, they revealed no truth for what he was about to face or where he was.

  “Well, I guess I have to give up,” he said, but then he suddenly remembered what he was about to do before he had to escape the previous floor.

  Quickly summoning the essence and the cultivation orb, he quickly shifted between the System message and the two objects in his hands.

  “It doesn’t seem like it will disappear any time soon,” he said, looking at the message that asked if he wanted to continue or not. “Should I use this and then see what happens?” Looking at his surroundings, he came to a decision. “This is as good a time as any. If I don’t feel any great difference, then I’ll definitely give up.”

  He was essentially in a big cave, so the floor was full of dust. Taking some of the destroyed clothes that he had in his storage, he began to lay them on the ground, creating a meditation spot. Taking a sip of water from a container, he began to stretch. This was all in an attempt to prime his body for what he was about to do.

  Time left in the Tower of Revelation: 40:54:31

  Checking the time once more and feeling that he had done everything that he could do given the circumstances, he sat down to meditate, ready to test both items.

  ----------

  The third round, in line with everyone’s expectations, ended with a whimper. Any and all momentum that had been steadily building up from the first two matches was completely erased by the death of Aegis.

  And it wasn’t only the matches as a whole that suffered a loss of momentum. Near the end of the third round, when some had gathered themselves enough to notice their surroundings, they noticed that one key aspect had changed, the movements of the faithful.

  When before, those that were in blatant collusion did so with little care, now they were fearful. Fear that realistically should have no effect on their matches, and yet it did. It was as if their faith in their cohorts had been shaken and instead, they wished to depend only on themselves. Matches were no longer forfeited, and they even grew slightly in intensity.

  And yet, there was another type of fear present amongst those that colluded, their numbers were small, by they existed. Those that wanted to lose immediately, not wanting to risk facing off against the chosen of another god and suffering such a brutal death.

  This primal fear that some felt was only strengthened by the fact that the Third Jackal appeared from underground completely intact. This was to be expected considering the regenerative effects that the underground section had, but it was still astonishing considering the number of times his abdomen had been pierced.

  Many expected the Third Jackal to succumb to his grave wounds, but he didn’t, and instead, he appeared barely bothered by his match. This attitude of his made it near impossible for the fear that some were feeling to dissipate.

  Amongst all that happened, there were those that questioned the necessity for either Aegis or the Third Jackal to go as far as they did in their fight. Many theories abounded, but, unless they were willing to ask those involved, they were never going to get answers.

  Asking those involved was a task in and of itself. While the Greek’s had mostly been open during the first few days, after the death of Aegis, they closed themselves off completely. For their part, Egypt had always kept its distance, wary of all who approached.

  In other words, most things remained a mystery, and with that, the third day of the tournament came to a close.

  ----------

  “So, there’re things going on that none of us are aware of?” Alex said, letting his body fall and sink into a couch.

  “That appears to be the case,” Stella said, confirming Alex’s thoughts. “At the very least there is something more going on between the Greek gods and the Egyptian gods.”

  “It couldn’t have been a personal thing?” Alex asked, looking at the ceiling.

  “No,” Anna answered, sitting beside him. “I could feel it, their hostility. It came from the divine energy itself, and it was directed at the other’s divine energy. I don’t think Aegis, or the Jackal themselves knew each other on a personal level. They were merely the ones that were chosen to fight.”

  “One thing is not knowing the schemes of other people, at least that way we have a chance to one day find out, but agendas that only gods know? What are we supposed to do with that?” Stella asked, her expression a bit worried. “And now that our natural protection against the gods is being negated by their sheer numbers, I—" Stella shook her head.

  “Calm down,” Alex said. “If anything, this proves that we aren’t as alone as we thought. We might not necessarily be allies, but as long as they have others to worry about, we will have some breathing room.”

  “I just don’t like not knowing about such things, it feels like I’m playing blindly,” Stella said, her voice tired.

  “The worst part is that it isn’t a game,” Anna said, trying to sound understanding.

  “I never said it was,” Stella shot back.

  “I didn’t mean it that way,” Anna said firmly, refusing to engage.

  “I know, it’s just… This was supposed to be a quick and easy thing,” Stella began. “Nothing major was supposed to happen. We come, win the teleporter and leave. Maybe get some information, but that was only optional. And now we’re targets and I’m not entirely sure we can win anymore.”

  “Anna and I still haven’t gone all out,” Alex commented.

  “Yes, but neither has her family, or the other chosen, and now that I think about it, did any of you see Eric’s siblings?” Stella asked, facing her two friends.

  “Yes. What was up with them?” Anna asked. “We know that at least Jamie should be far stronger than that, right?”

  “And Adrian should’ve been able to resist those attacks with ease,” Alex added.

  Silence overtook the room as they all thought back to the third round.

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