Chapter 205: Merely the First Floor
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 205: Merely the First Floor
On the other side of the tower.
Swish—!
Kairos cut down a lunging monster with a single stroke, then followed up with a wave of flames that incinerated a nearby broodmother.
Watching the broodmother attempt to regenerate, he turned to Nimo.
"Nimo, according to your divination, where is the exit for this floor?"
Nimo performed a quick mental calculation before pointing toward a specific direction.
"Under that rock. There’s a hidden shortcut that leads directly to the fifty-second floor. However, you’ll have to face a boss at the level of the two-thousandth floor."
Boom—!
Kairos hurled his greatsword, shattering the boulder Nimo had pointed out in a single blow.
"Fighting a two-thousandth-floor boss just to skip a thousand floors? It’s a bit of a hassle, but well within my limits."
With that, he grabbed Nimo and leapt into the passage below.
Upon reaching the bottom, he found a magic circle laid out on the ground.
Pinned atop the circle was a Giant Armored Turtle.
As expected, he only needed to kill this Giant Armored Turtle to activate the array and leap straight past the thousandth floor.
Using the momentum of his fall, Kairos pinpointed the creature's weak spot and slammed his weapon down with brutal force.
Crack—!
The shell covering the turtle's head shattered instantly, sending blood spraying several meters into the air.
Thud!
Kairos landed steadily, unfolding a wind field to catch Nimo as he descended.
"This should do it, right?"
In response to Kairos's question, Nimo looked at the glowing magic circle and nodded.
"Not only that, but it seems this array evaluates the challenger's performance to grant extra bonus floors."
As Nimo finished speaking, the magic circle officially activated.
With a flash of white light, Kairos and Nimo arrived at the two-thousandth floor.
Seeing a Red-Horned Dragon Beast slowly awakening not far away, Kairos raised his greatsword.
"They even have ancient creatures mentioned in history books? This tower is much more interesting than the last time I was here."
With a sudden burst of speed, he lunged forward.
*
The First Floor.
After a brief tour of the top floors, Julius followed Xie Bai back down.
The Two Little Ones swarmed around him, asking excitedly, "Well? How was it? How does it feel to finish the tower?"
"According to the previous records, you’re the first person to ever climb the tower floor by floor from the very bottom to the top."
Faced with their questions, Julius shook his head.
"I didn't feel much of anything. Compared to the trials the Cult Leader gave me, the difficulty of this tower is only upper-middle tier at best."
Gamie stopped in her tracks.
"Oh? Is that so? Then what were your previous trials like?"
Julius stopped as well.
"Physically entering the Heavenly Domain. Before the Heavenly Domain descended upon the mortal realm, I had to kill thirty-five thousand lower angels and twenty-three higher angels, finally escaping the Heavenly Domain while under siege by three Archangels..."
Xie Bai suddenly came to a halt up ahead.
Seeing her stop, Gamie asked in confusion, "What’s wrong, Sister Xiaobai?"
She followed Xie Bai’s gaze.
People. Lots of people.
There were all sorts of individuals, dressed in a wide variety of styles.
Without anyone noticing, the first floor had become packed with them.
Unsurprisingly, none of them were students of Dome Academy.
By now, the "water temperature" of the tower had reached an absurd level. Forget students—even the teachers didn't dare wander into the tower casually.
At that moment, a man clad in full armor collapsed to his knees, fuming with indignation.
"This Dome Academy is completely abusing its authority! Why do we have to pass the first floor of the tower just to qualify for the competition?"
Hearing his complaints, a supervising teacher walked over.
"The High Tower is the symbol of Dome Academy. If you can't even pass the first floor, what right do you have to compete here?"
The man snapped to his feet, pointing at a nearby monster.
"Are you brain-dead or just blind? What kind of student could possibly defeat a monster of this difficulty!"
Faced with the man's interrogation, the teacher replied calmly.
"Every year at the start of the term, our Dome Tower organizes a climb for the students. Unless there’s an emergency, even the weakest can pass twenty floors. Asking you to pass the simplest first floor is merely a symbolic gesture."
"Symbolic my ass! You just look down on those of us from other academies and think we're idiots! Why don't you have one of your students try it right now? Let's see if a single one of them can pass!"
The teacher ignored the man's second outburst and turned away.
In truth, he really did look down on these people.
He knew better than anyone that the current difficulty of the tower was abnormal.
But so what?
Everything he had just said was the truth, without a hint of falsehood.
Seeing the teacher's cold shoulder, the man grew desperate and scanned the surroundings.
Just then, Xie Bai’s group happened to be passing by.
When the man saw the Dome Academy badges worn by Xie Bai and the others, he immediately shouted to the teacher.
"Look! There are some of your students right there! I dare you to let them challenge the monsters on the first floor!"
Before the teacher could react, the man rushed over to Xie Bai’s group.
"You lot..."
He looked up at Julius.
Staring at the man's two-meter-tall frame and that pitch-black face where no features could be discerned, the man instinctively recoiled.
"You... no, not you..."
He quickly shifted his gaze downward toward Xie Bai.
"Yes, you! You’re a student of Dome Academy, right?"
Xie Bai tilted her head slightly at the man's question.
"Um... yes. Is something wrong?"
Looking at Xie Bai’s innocent expression, the man felt his heart skip a beat.
No, I almost let her distract me.
Snapping back to his senses, he pointed at her and asked, "Since you’re a student here, you should be able to pass this first floor, right?"
He glanced back at the teacher.
The teacher panicked instantly.
Crap! Why are there students here now? Shouldn't they have all cleared out by now...?
He had only wanted to use this opportunity to vent his own frustrations, but he hadn't expected a complication to arise so quickly.
With the monsters being this strong, how could these students possibly win?
If an accident happened, these outsiders would definitely seize the chance to smear Dome Academy’s reputation.
But if he stepped forward to apologize now, the Dean would surely hold him responsible...
After a moment of hesitation, he spoke to the man.
"Wait, just a moment..."
Before he could finish, Xie Bai suddenly turned to look at him.
There seemed to be a faint, knowing smile in her eyes.
In the next second.
A flurry of Fate Cards whistled through the air, slaughtering every trial monster in the vicinity before flying back into Xie Bai’s hand.
It was clean and efficient; no one present had even had time to react.
"Wait... what... what faction are you from?" the man stammered.
Xie Bai walked past him, saying nonchalantly, "I’m just a Fate Faction student studying divination. I’m not very good at fighting, but if it’s just killing these monsters, I can manage."
She stopped in front of the teacher and asked in a gentle tone, "Teacher, may I ask... were you sent here by the Dean?"