Leaking Heaven's Secrets

—······.

—Quite the capable little crow, aren't you!

The God of Ominous and the God of Disaster both fixed me with intensely curious gazes.

A vast plain.

Before the mountains of bones scattered everywhere, I let out a great cry.

“Kkak!”

Kkak!

Kkaaaak!

Even more “crows” wheeled through the air around me.

Ever since absorbing the crow core, I had been honing my techniques through the “trial” the gods had bestowed.

I still had no idea why they had suddenly imposed the same trial I once endured in the Tower of Mystery.

Easier than back then, though.

For me, that was something to be grateful for.

When I first arrived in Cramdel as a Corpse Crow.

I had climbed the Tower of Mystery and faced skeleton soldiers.

And I had achieved a feat even the White King never managed, obtaining Eternal Randolph.

Yet here I was, confronting that exact same trial once more.

Level 4. On top of that, my stats and gear are far better than they were then.

Ten thousand Level 4 skeleton soldiers.

At best, each one possessed a single stat of only 40.

Total stats of 200—something even most beginners could handle.

Combat ability, sense—everything about them was crude, simple-minded monsters far beneath me.

Even with ten thousand gathered, there was no reason I, whose stats had already surpassed Level 10, could not handle them.

My equipment, and even the talismans affixed to that equipment, were incomparable to what I had worn when first climbing the Tower of Mystery.

—······.

—Kwahaha! A truly splendid crow!

The God of Ominous glanced at me once before turning his head away.

The God of Disaster, however, burst into thunderous laughter, mouth stretched ear to ear.

The reason their attitudes diverged so sharply was simple.

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Because I ate the core of the Disaster Clan.

I had chosen the Disaster Clan rather than the Ominous Clan.

Randolph had already become the Dreadful Omen and inherited the will of the Ominous Clan, after all.

More than that, the two gods seemed to have a vague grasp of my condition.

They already know a great many things are mixed inside me.

The way they kept calling me by different titles.

Bean bug, hippo, elephant, cricket, and so on.

It was not merely because they were crows, or because their intelligence was low.

The words of chief gods were never to be taken lightly.

Their expressions and human expressions were fundamentally different, and the weight carried within those words was vastly different as well.

Naturally, the nicknames they tossed out in jest were no exception.

Those two gods had seen straight through my state—and might even have reached Randolph.

No. They certainly had.

Martial God Karas recognized at a glance that Randolph was the Dreadful Omen. Those two must have discerned far more than Karas ever observed.

Thus I had no choice but to be extremely careful with my selection.

When I chose the Disaster Clan, the God of Ominous clicked his tongue.

—I thought you’d eat both.

—Is this not proof that the Disaster Clan is superior? Kwahahaha!

—A wiser crow than expected. Had you eaten both, your belly would have burst and you’d have died.

—The “other side” has already chosen the Ominous Clan, so only now can a perfect comparison be made!

Their conversation confirmed my suspicions.

Choosing the core had itself been part of the gods’ trial.

Had I greedily tried to devour both, I would have died. Had I chosen the Ominous Clan, comparison of martial power would have become impossible and I would never have escaped this place.

To allow the two gods to compare, one had to know both sides.

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I already know the Ominous Clan. Only the Disaster Clan remains.

Cold sweat ran down my back.

To claim I had not been tense would have been a lie.

Eating both cores, or choosing the Ominous Clan I already knew—both had been options I considered.

Moreover, from the very beginning my gaze had been drawn more strongly to the God of Ominous.

The God of Ominous always spoke first, and the God of Disaster merely responded.

Naturally it seemed the initiative lay with the God of Ominous.

Most people would have chosen the path of becoming part of the Ominous Clan.

All of it was a trap.

Looking back, every path except becoming part of the Disaster Clan had been a trap.

Those two casually handed down successive trials of death.

Perhaps this was the difference between mortals and immortals.

Just as I let out a quiet sigh—

The path I had walked before becoming the Dreadful Omen as Randolph.

It was exactly the same as when I climbed the Tower of Mystery using Corpse Crow Summoning.

Already the second one.

The first Trial of Disaster had been choosing the core; the second had been defeating ten thousand skeleton soldiers of matching level.

Now it was time to smash the next trial.

And if my prediction was correct—

—The next trial is likewise to defeat ten thousand skeleton soldiers. But the ones that appear this time will be incomparably stronger than the previous ones. Kkak!

The God of Disaster smiled slyly.

As if asking whether I could win this time as well.

—Will you still challenge it?

I couldn’t help but smirk inwardly.

So they don’t know everything about me after all.

Apparently even the God of Disaster was unaware of exactly what feats I had accomplished.

That I had already climbed the Tower of Mystery all the way to the end.

If they knew, they would never have imposed the same trial.

I shouted with confidence.

“I will challenge it, kkak!”

In that instant—

Clatter!

Clatter!

At the same time, the fallen skeleton soldiers rose once more.

Bearing an opposing attribute!

How flustered I had been when I first met these things while climbing the Tower of Mystery.

But now a smile rose unbidden to my lips.

The end of the trial.

I was certain the reward waiting at that end would be incomparably sweeter than anything I held now.

Moreover, climbing the trials did not merely grant God Points.

Even the Mysteries obtainable in the Tower of Mystery were continuously transcending.

The same trial as before, yet under an entirely different name.

I steadied my breathing.

Let’s see the end once more.

The moment the name of Park Hyunmyeong, the first to clear the 20th floor, appeared—

Everyone was thrown into confusion.

The name of a 2nd Generation Awakened who had only just finished the tutorial had appeared, after all.

No matter how hard they tried to understand, they simply could not.

Why Park Hyunmyeong had already climbed the Tower of the Martial God, and how he had cleared the 20th floor once he did.

After the tutorial ended, Park Hyunmyeong had never once shown himself.

Even after reclaiming first place by surpassing Randolph, he had continued living as a recluse.

Yet he had suddenly appeared in the Tower of the Martial God.

People speculated that some “massive force” stood behind Park Hyunmyeong.

In reality, people backed by massive forces had begun climbing the Tower of the Martial God one by one.

And precisely on the seventh day—

A massive number of 20th-floor clearers appeared simultaneously.

······.

······.

Of course, among them were truly unexpected names.

Names no one had ever imagined.

Naturally every community related to Awakened exploded.

“······.”

Those who had barely managed to clear the 20th floor of the Tower of the Martial God.

They all frowned at the same time as they stared at the given hint.

It was only natural.

Phase 2.

The hint concerning the weakness of the Blade Dragon God was truly absurd.

Moreover, only an extremely sparse hint had appeared; they could not even tell the exact conditions.

After endless preparation they had reached this place battered and broken—and this was all they got!

“You’re giving us this crap and calling it a hint?”

“This is all there is?”

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“What the hell are we supposed to do with this······.”

Everyone twisted their faces into ugly grimaces as they once again stared at the hint that had appeared before their eyes.