The spiral staircase ahead glistened like black ice, each step etched with faintly glowing runes. They pulsed in a slow rhythm, almost like the tower itself was breathing. Jiang Ming took the first step, and the air shifted — lighter than before, but humming with a new energy.
Every movement sent faint echoes into the vast darkness above, as though the staircase were suspended in a void. He glanced over the side, but there was nothing — no walls, no drop, just endless black. The Infinite Tower's structure wasn't built for comfort; it was built to remind its climbers how small they were.
In his vision, the system menu flickered to life.
[Resource Multiplier: 100x]
[Unique Skill: Battlefield Transmutation – Tier 1]
[Effect: Alter terrain and structures within a combat zone to favor your position. Costs scale with scale of alteration.]
He smirked. A hundredfold multiplier. If Tenfold Genesis had been a cheat code, this was god mode. And Battlefield Transmutation… that would make Dominion Architect look like a child stacking blocks.
Still, the figure on the throne had warned him — the fusion of paths meant greater difficulty ahead. The Tower wouldn't give him another warm-up.
At the two-hundredth step, the runes flared, and a wave of cold air rushed down from above. It was sharper, heavier than the Ice Hell's natural chill, as if it carried intent.
Jiang Ming slowed, scanning ahead. Shapes moved in the darkness — thin, insectoid limbs clicking against the ice, glowing blue eyes peering at him. The first emerged into view, and his lips curled into a predatory grin.
[Frostmantis – Floor 2 Sentinel]
[Abilities: Camouflage in frozen terrain, rapid strikes, mana-draining stingers.]
[Kill Reward: Sentinel Core (C–S Rank), +300 Tower Points]
Three more scuttled behind it, their bodies jagged with crystalline armor.
"Let's see how you like a little remodeling," Jiang Ming muttered.
With a thought, he activated Battlefield Transmutation. The staircase ahead rippled, black ice melting away to reveal jagged steel spikes jutting upward. The nearest Frostmantis leapt — straight into the trap. Its segmented body split apart in a spray of frost, the shards dissolving into motes of light.
[Sentinel Slain – Rewards multiplied 100x.]
The others hesitated, clicking their mandibles. Jiang Ming didn't. Eternal Core fueling his movement, he sprinted forward, Glacierfang sweeping in a wide arc. One sentinel's forelimbs froze mid-attack before shattering, another lost its head entirely.
The final one tried to retreat into the shadows, but Jiang Ming wasn't in the mood for hide-and-seek. He transmuted the wall itself into a net of froststeel, trapping the creature in place. A clean thrust ended it.
The staircase smoothed out again, runes dimming. For a moment, silence returned — until the system spoke:
[Mid-Floor Gauntlet Initiated: You must ascend 1,000 steps under continuous assault.]
"Continuous assault," he repeated under his breath. "Guess they're done letting me rest."
The next hundred steps brought waves of enemies — frostbitten specters, skeletal wolves, and even chunks of the staircase that detached and transformed into animated golems. Each time, Jiang Ming's new skill bent the battlefield in his favor — steps turning into ramps to send foes tumbling, walls sprouting spikes, even conjured barricades to funnel enemies into kill zones.
The resource gain was absurd. His inventory filled with Sentinel Cores, rare ores, froststeel, and mana-crystals, all magnified a hundredfold. Even his allies down in the Ice Hell could be outfitted like warlords with this haul.
By step 900, his armor was dusted with frost and spectral ash, Glacierfang's edge glowing faintly from overuse. The staircase finally leveled into a wide landing. In its center stood an archway of black crystal, the runes brighter here, thrumming like a heartbeat.
Beyond it lay swirling snow and the faint outline of a massive gate.
[Floor 2 Boss Chamber Detected]
[Boss: Frost Revenant General]
[Recommended Party Size: 10+]
Jiang Ming chuckled. "Recommended party size, huh? Guess I'll take that as a compliment."
He stepped through the archway.
The chamber beyond was vast, its ceiling lost in the swirling blizzard that filled it. The ground was a frozen battlefield, littered with weapons and armor from long-dead challengers. In the center stood the Frost Revenant General — twice the height of a man, clad in jagged ice-armor, its greatsword almost as long as Jiang Ming was tall.
The moment its glowing eyes locked on him, the wind howled louder, the snow whipping into a vortex.
"Challenger," it boomed, voice echoing like breaking glaciers. "You dare climb further?"
Jiang Ming leveled Glacierfang, his skeletal gauntlet flexing. "I don't dare. I intend to."
The General moved impossibly fast for its size, greatsword cleaving downward in a strike that cracked the ice underfoot. Jiang Ming sidestepped, transmuting the ground into slick glass, sending the boss sliding just enough for him to lunge in. Glacierfang bit deep into its side, frost meeting frost in a burst of steam.
The battle raged — blows traded in a blur, the chamber itself reshaped again and again under Jiang Ming's will. He conjured spikes to block swings, ramps to launch himself over sweeping strikes, even momentarily walled off the storm to regain visibility.
But the Revenant adapted. It shattered barricades, leapt gaps, and began striking with enough force to collapse parts of the floor. Each time the ice fell away, there was only void beneath — a reminder of how final one wrong step could be.
Finally, Jiang Ming saw his opening. The Revenant swung wide, overextending. He transmuted the ice under its feet into a sinkhole of jagged chains that wrapped upward, binding its legs.
"End of the line," he said, driving Glacierfang upward through its chest.
The Revenant froze in place, cracks racing across its armor until it exploded in a hail of glittering shards.
[Boss Defeated – Rewards multiplied 100x.]
[Floor 2 Cleared.]
[New Feature Unlocked: Inter-Floor Transit Hub.]
The blizzard died instantly, revealing a second staircase at the far end of the chamber.
Jiang Ming exhaled slowly, not from fatigue — Eternal Core never let him tire — but from the satisfaction of a challenge met and crushed. The Tower wasn't slowing him down yet.
And as he stepped toward the next climb, the thought came unbidden:
If this is just the second floor, what's waiting at the hundredth?