Tower of Endless: Death Granted Entry

Back in the arena, as soon as the duel was over... Uon didn’t even need to announce the winner. He was worried, and now that Moon had won, he simply left, having lots of work to do and completely ignoring the rest of the formalities.

Further away from him, Dorbish, who was sitting next to Lexie, both had the exact same look on their faces: pure disbelief.

It didn’t take long before Lexie screamed in Dorbish’s face. ”You tricked me!” She was frustrated, fully realizing she had been played.

Dorbish, who had been confident in Moon’s victory, had never imagined it would be decided in the first attack, let alone like that. He had trusted his gut feeling, but his gut had never mentioned a thing about this. ”I... I...” he stuttered for the first time, unable to find the words.

Lexie stomped the ground. ”You hateful thing! Him too, and that cursed thing!” She pointed at Dorbish’s face first, at Moon second, and at Mishu last.

Dorbish genuinely felt bad about this. He hadn’t thought Moon would pull something like that, and he also felt rather bad for Lexie. He cleared his throat. ”Eh, before that cat did what it did... don’t you remember someone shouting at you... warning you not to approach?”

Lexie’s eyes darted to the sky, shifting left and right for a few seconds. ”I think such a thing really happened,” she nodded, before her eyes snapped back to Dorbish. ”What about it?”

”It was him!” Dorbish pointed at Moon.

Lexie raised an eyebrow, ”What are you talking about? He’s friends with that thing!” She was sure she was them sitting side by side peacefully.

”He was the first to come to the facility, and he probably knew and tried to warn you, but it was too late.” Dorbish shook his head. ”And he also got jump-scared by the cat just a moment before you arrived.”

Lexie squinted, getting a slight sense of dejavu. ”Why are you telling me that anyway?”

”I just thought of resolving grudges and misunderstandings,” he said with open arms.

Lexie didn’t seem to buy it, though. She fished a small box from her pocket and threw it at him. ”I don’t know what trick you’re playing this time,” She waved her hands, seemingly still frustrated, ”I don’t have time for this, I have to check on my aid.” She turned around, making her way out of the arena.

Dorbish realized he might have lost her trust, but nothing could be done about it now. Once she was gone, he turned his gaze toward Roran who was already done with his conversation with Talia, but still was sitting further away and actively trying to avoid making eye contact with him.

Dorbish pursed his lips. ’This bastard... he nearly got us into a meaningless fight with this guy,’ he thought, deciding to make sure Roran was kept as far away from him as possible, lest he risk his own lifespan.

On Samuel’s side, Lucen, who seemed to have thoroughly enjoyed the show, waved his hand, allowing their voices to reach the world again. ”It was a great show to see.”

Ed nodded. ”Yep. Anyway, try to visit less if possible,” he smiled back at Lucen, who couldn’t help but laugh dryly.

He bid them farewell and left, leaving behind Samuel, who hadn’t moved, trying to avoid the excited smile on Ed’s face next to him.

”Dull bastard. I have work to do, don’t be late for breakfast,” Ed waved his hand less than a centimeter away from Samuel’s nose before heading to the kitchen.

But Samuel had much more on his mind than just this small victory.

Moon was performing well, almost too well, but there was something he wasn’t sure if Ed was ignoring on purpose or was truly ignorant of. Within this branch, all those who arrived were from lower-floor clans, and amongst them, the child could seem particularly invincible. Moon might even be the first unaffiliated ascender in history to ever build his own group for the second-floor trial—especially considering that his group wasn’t made of other unaffiliated ascenders, but children of clans and their subordinates at that.

It was something impossible to happen under normal circumstances. But in Samuel’s eyes, he felt that Moon was still weak. He had yet to meet those from the middle floors... or even the higher floors.

The ruling clans of those floors don’t produce mediocre children. Colten wasn’t a benchmark, nor did he qualify for an assessment.

”Your skills are commendable, but you have yet to come close to the floor’s upper limit... I wonder how far these skills of yours can take you,” Samuel spoke softly to himself before heading out as well.

In his room, Moon started checking his status window first thing.

First up, the quest.

Congratulations, Ascender Moon.

By the authority of the Tower System, Ascender Moon holds Proof of Authority over Ascender Colten of Azure Flame for as long as it takes to pass the second-floor trial, or until Ascender Moon gives up his authority over Ascender Colten.

Rewards:

Reclamation of Old Pendant

Acquisition of Colten of Azure Flame’s Proof of Authority (Ring)

Emblem of Assault Facility (Lucen’s unofficial reward)

Letter of Recommendation (Lucen’s unofficial reward)

Four items fell into his lap while he was sitting cross-legged on the bed.

First was his pendant, which for some reason felt like it had been away from him for a very long time. Next was the ring he was familiar with: Colten’s. Without much thought, he hung the ring onto the pendant’s chain before wearing it around his neck once again.

Now he had two new items. What the Assault Facility was, he didn’t know, but he held up the emblem to check it. He was surprised to see it was the very thing Lucen had spoken of, but he was seeing it for the first time: the golden sword. It looked majestic, formal, and for some reason, it also felt radiant.

He tried to get information on it from the status window, but:

Emblem belongs to Assault Facility’s founder, Sir Lucen

Grade: (Undetermined)

Functions: (Undetermined)

Moon pursed his lips. ”You might as well write down ’useless’ next to the name,” he complained.

As for the letter, it looked like a golden envelope. He tossed it, along with the emblem, onto the desk. He would ask Ed about them later.

But what was that thing behind the quest window?

Ascension Gift Awakening Notice

[Hypothetical Prospective]

[Your mind is rooted more into reality than imagination] - [What you imagine and perfectly perform within {Sample Space} has lower chance of producing {Null Event}.]

”What kind of cryptic bullshit is this?”

He decided to take a look at the Crimson Window.

Awakening Talent Activated

But... unusually, it had the exact same description.

”Comoooooon.” He had been happy for a fraction of a second, but he couldn’t understand what he was even reading, even if the words were right there.

The only difference on the Crimson Window was a single line:

Exclusive ability to the lineage of Tower of Endless.

Slap.

Moon facepalmed himself.

He decided to take a look at the logs; they were his last hope. At the very bottom, there were a few new entries:

User is attempting Awakening Talent Activation.

User has successfully entered Sample Space.

User has successfully activated Awakening Talent.