The waiting room materialized before him, and he was back to the room how he left it. In front of him were the clean white walls, the soft lighting, the training dummies in the corner—everything was the same.
The calmness made him feel weird after what he just witnessed. Val's last moments, the cyclops, fighting each wave in struggle. Staring at the room, it was like nothing ever happened and Aasal was perfectly fine.
Aasal collapsed onto the bed, finally giving into the exhaustion of fighting the waves back to back and the adrenaline. He opened his palm and stared at the pendant that Val gave him just before he died. It was simple, crude, but it had a special meaning to him. The metal on the necklace was still warm from Val which almost made Aasal cry again, his eyes getting watery.
Was he real? Val felt very real—his laughter, his fears, his tears. But who says the tower didn't create a hyperrealistic version of a human. Maybe it was a clone of the real Val serving only a purpose for the tower and put on a floor. Maybe this was all an elaborate simulation, a construct designed for Aasal to accidentally bump into him for him to eventually become friends with him. It was near impossible, but the tower was incomprehensible to understand and what it could do to make him suffer under the guise of training.
The uncertainty was almost worse than the grief. At least with grief you can mourn. But how could Aasal mourn someone who might have never even existed.
Aasal clenched his fists in frustration, and the mana surged out of them responding to the call of his emotions. Trying to steady his emotions he realized it didn't matter if he was real or not. Val had been his friend, a brother, in every way that mattered. And that still did not change the fact that the cyclops killed him.
His emotions surged again, and he remembered the cyclops and imprinted its visage into his soul. He will find it and kill it. No matter if it's outside the tower, in the tower or even if he has to make his way back to floor 3, he will find a way. Curious, he scanned the pendant.
[Verdara Pendant]
A pendant gifted by a native of Verdara with a strong grudge against the monsters who destroyed his world
Allows the user to teleport to Floor 3 until the user dies or all monsters are dead.
Aasal knew he was no match for the cyclops. The memory of that single, massive eye studying him, looking through himself into his very soul. Even now in the safety of the waiting room, his head throbbed even when thinking of it. The creature existed on a level his mind could not comprehend.
But he would grow stronger. No matter how strong the enemy is, he will reach that height and climb further. Once he reaches the peak of the mountain, he finds another peak to climb.
Aasal forced himself to calm himself down and focus on what he could control. He was alive and stronger than ever before. The battle had pushed him beyond his limits, and he could feel the changes in his body, his mana, and even his soul.
He held out his hand and concentrated, watching as the blue mana gathered in his palm. What had once required intense focus now felt as natural as breathing. The mana responded to his will, shaping itself around his body like invisible armor. The technique was now effortless to do.
Remembering his last battle, he reshaped the energy into a sword. The blade hummed with power, its edges sharp enough to easily cut through steel. The details of it weren't perfect, but with enough practice he could refine it even further.
He dissolved the sword and then tried the spear. And then a shield. Each shape was easier than the last, and his mana manipulation had grown leaps and bounds. He had lost nearly all his physical weapons except his bow, but it no longer mattered. He could create whatever he wanted from mana. If the weapon was lacking then that means he just hasn't made it strong enough.
The tower's system had been sending him notifications throughout the battle, and now that it was over, he could finally review them.
[Congratulations! You have cleared the 3rd Floor!]
[Reward Unlocked: Mana Burst- A skill book to channeling concentrated mana to the mouth, allowing the user to expel devastating energy beams.
[Reward Unlocked: 2000 Tower Coins]
[Bonus Reward: Book of Intent- A skill book that teaches the art of reading the underlying will and purpose of any being or object. Reveals truth, discerns enemy intentions, and pierces through deception. Limited only by the user's mental capacity and understanding.
[You have learned: … ]
His status had also updated significantly:
{[Name: Aasal Khara Hayes Lv. 30]
[Age: 17]
[Race: Human]
[Talent: Clone]
[Class: No-Class]
Skills: [Aeolus's Spirit, Mana Manipulation Lv.27, Swordsmanship Lv.25, Mana Augmentation Lv.25, Mana Sense Lv.22, Archery Lv.22, Will Lv.18, Pain Tolerance Lv.17, Fainting Resistance Lv.17, Bleed Resistance Lv.16, Dodge Lv.16, Recovery Lv.15, Heightened Senses Lv.15, Survival Instinct Lv.14, Blunt Damage Resistance Lv.11, Spearmanship Lv.11, Cut Damage Resistance Lv.10, Gauntlet Combat Lv.10]
[Titles: XfhD#2q9… Difficulty Challenger (???), Ascent Through Struggle (Unique), Unbending (Unique), Beta Tester (Unique), Masochist (Epic)
[Conditions: None]
[Statuses:
Strength: 91
Agility: 93
Intelligence: 84
Vitality: 88
Luck: 0.5
Charisma: 2
FreePoints: 0]
[Coins: 2240 Tower Coins]
Ascent Through Struggle (Unique):The stronger the foe, the faster you adapt. You are forged in hardship—each battle refining your power even further.
Unbending (Unique):You saw what was never meant for mortal eyes—gaze met with a being touched by divinity. Your soul did not break; it grew stronger in defiance.
Not only did his stats increase a huge amount, but his skills had jumped multiple levels. The huge jump in most of his skills probably had to do with figuring out how to put up a shield of mana around himself as well as apply it to weapons.
The Ascent Through Struggle seemed pretty obvious from where it came from. It came from fighting enemies for hours on end, and 3 waves of them. Each wave the monsters were stronger than him, yet, it could not kill him.
Unbending surprised him, yet he knew what it was about—the cyclops. The creature apparently possessed some form of divinity, which explained why everyone else's heads had exploded when they looked at it.
Checking his other notifications he became surprised.
[New Feature Unlocked: Tower Shop!]
[Available due to user "Hidden" clearing Floor 5 of Normal Difficulty]
The shop had finally opened—that user Ace had been right. He didn't check the shop immediately, as he still had other notifications to review. One message made him frown.
[Tower Status Update: Floor 10 cleared in Normal Difficulty. Tower access has now expanded!]
Someone had cleared Floor 10? How was that even possible? He checked the time—only five days had passed since the tower's activation. He had just completed floor 3, and someone was likely already past floor 10. Although it didn't matter since he was in a different difficulty, he couldn't help but feel he was progressing too slowly.
Wait—if Floor 10 was completed, didn't that mean newcomers could now enter? Then he saw the notifications about millions of new users and the alerts that followed.
[System Alert: Due to massive user influx, chat rooms will now be separated by difficulty level with multiple servers for each category]
Aasal's heart sank as he read this. If the chatrooms were now separated by difficulty, then...
[Error Difficulty Forums: 1/0]
He could no longer see chats from other people and was now even more isolated. He suspected that once he reached floor 10, he wouldn't be able to leave like everyone else. Cursing this ridiculous system, he focused on moving forward.
Opening the shop, he noticed the categories were extensive, but the main ones were:
Weapons and Armor
Consumables
Skill Books
Artifacts
He browsed through the weapons section first, finding everything from basic swords to legendary artifacts that costed hundreds of thousands of tower coins. Most were beyond him for now, but there were some interesting options at his disposal with coins he had.
[Coins: 2240 Tower Coins]
The consumables section contained various healing potions, mana potions, and even the pill that Val had given him during battle. There was so much available that he decided to explore it more thoroughly later.
The skill books caught his attention next. He had earned two skill books for completing the third floor—Mana Burst and the Book of Intent. From their descriptions, Mana Burst was straightforward, but the Book of Intent was more ambiguous.
He tried to absorb the skill books directly but received an error message. It seemed he would have to learn them the traditional way—by reading and understanding the content.
The books on display showed various techniques like fireball and others, with some entries redacted. Just viewing the names of certain skills required higher authority levels, and they cost millions of coins.
One particular entry made him pause:
Soul Sight- 50000 Tower Coins
Grants the user the ability to perceive and analyze the souls of oneself and others
This skill could tell him whether Val—or anyone in the tower—was real or a copy. But at 50,000 coins, it was far beyond his current reach. He bookmarked it for the future.
The last section was the artifacts, but quickly discarded it for now. Mostly everything was inaccessible— requiring higher authority levels and cost millions of coins.
Closing the system interface, he rubbed his temples, overwhelmed by the sheer amount of preparation needed for the future. From the corner of his eye, he noticed something strange in the waiting room.
'Was that door always there?' Aasal was certain the door had never been there before—he would have noticed. Walking up to it, he tried to open it, but it was locked.
"What kind of lock is this?" There was an inexplicable mechanism on the door that prevented him from opening it. Channeling his mana into the handle, he could sense that opening the door would require significantly more advanced mana manipulation than he currently possessed.
He tried blasting the door with his most powerful techniques, but they didn't leave even a scratch or mark on its surface.
He still had 24 hours before floor 4. Although he yearned to jump into battle immediately, he wanted to read the books he had earned first. While the system had recognized his growth through combat, it had never acknowledged his exceptional talent for learning.
Aasal had read thousands of books and novels across countless subjects. His eidetic memory allowed him to retain everything after a single reading, and his comprehension was equally impressive. He cracked his knuckles dramatically, then reached up and adjusted his imaginary glasses. Settling into a comfortable position and opening the first book, he began an intensive study session.
"Old habits die hard," Aasal chuckled to himself with amusement. "Good thing being a nerd might actually be useful for once."