Chapter 454: Ninety-Fifth Floor, Phantom of the Predecessor (1)

On the fifty-second floor, I had completed a hidden mission called “Companionship, the Phantom of the Predecessor.” As a reward, I had been allowed to manifest an illusion that would guide future challengers. That was when I realized that the Kalain who had been accompanying me could be the god I had heard referred to as Kal-Lain, also known as Sky of the Nine Heavens.

That phantom had attempted to distract me from completing the hidden mission, but it hadn’t impeded me in any other way. In fact, he was instrumental in helping me overcome the trial.

What will this floor be like?

The message had yet to update. Still surrounded by darkness, I contemplated different possibilities.

Considering the floor’s name, I would likely have to endure physical and mental hardship. The fifty-second floor had forced me to climb a mountain without any equipment. The only difference was that I hadn’t needed to enter the Room of Abandonment. As soon as I had started the floor, everything had simply vanished. Barefoot, clad only in simple cloth and a robe, I had pressed on.

Regardless, I couldn’t be certain, but it was likely. The previous floor had mirrored the fifth, so for the ninety-fifth to echo the fifty-second was hardly unthinkable. There was no way it would be the exact same, however. First of all, the name was related to the hidden mission on that floor, not the floor itself, and second, I had already figured out the hidden mission on that floor.

On the other hand, I doubted it would center on enlightenment or puzzles—the ninety-fourth and ninety-third floors had already tasked me with that. For such a trial to appear on the ninety-fifth seemed strange.

As my doubts mounted, I finally received confirmation.

[Annihilate the Phantom of the Predecessor. Time remaining: 2 hours 59 minutes.]

The command caught me off guard. Annihilate the phantom? That could only mean one thing: I would face Kalain.

However, my lack of equipment had tricked me into thinking this trial wouldn’t involve combat. It felt downright impossible to beat Kalain with my bare hands. On second thought, perhaps not. His phantom wasn’t guaranteed to have equipment. Though that made me question why. Then it occurred to me.

Would Souldbound be accessible?

In my panic, I had forgotten that I had retrieved it from my mimic while unable to move. The tower had declared that Mung-chi was inaccessible on this floor, but it hadn’t mentioned anything about Soulbound. Perhaps our bond could be utilized.

So maybe the Room of Abandonment is a trap.

It could be a trick meant to make a climber willingly discard their weapon. After all, when told to keep a single item, most climbers would naturally choose their weapon. My surroundings began to brighten, and I abandoned the thought. Stale, heavy air filled my lungs, clinging against my skin.

I drew in a long breath, practically gasping. “

Haaa.

”

The battlefield was black. Not dark due to a lack of light, but rather everything—from the earth beneath my feet to the distant stone pillars and even the sky above—was black. From beyond the clouds, a light of unknown origin barely illuminated everything, and even that was veiled by a mist that shrouded the world. It cast it in an eerie atmosphere.

Did I sense something?

I probed my surroundings with Awareness, but nothing reacted. On the fifty-second floor, Kalain’s phantom had appeared after a delay, so it would likely be the same here.

Zzzzzzt.

As I scanned the area, the ground before me trembled. Something rose up from the earth. It was the very same altar from the Room of Abandonment, and atop it lay Soulbound, precisely where I had left it.

Of course. It wouldn’t make sense for the tower to have me fight without it. Although I was thinking they would return it after the floor.

I picked it up without a moment’s hesitation. If I had chosen to keep anything other than a weapon, it would have been disastrous. Even if that meant the Room of Abandonment wasn’t the kind of trap I had imagined, it was still a kind of trap, forcing whoever was in the room to choose between their weapon and items that could be useful in the long term.

A wisp of mist brushed past me, and I drew in a damp breath. Nothing had appeared yet.

Is it giving me time to prepare?

I considered it, then silently agreed that Kalain’s phantom would appear. With a trial this straightforward, the tower wasn’t likely to have concealed a hidden mission this early.

For a combat trial, three hours was generous, but I already noticed the difference my lack of gear made. It had bolstered my stats by a decent amount, and my abilities had undeniably decreased. I hadn’t checked my status window in a long time, so I couldn't say with certainty what my stats were now.

The higher the stat, the harder it was to raise, and the difference of even a single point grew exponentially more significant. The difference between ten and eleven wasn't anything like the difference between one hundred and one hundred one.

That was why equipment capable of granting large increases in stats was rare. The greatest I had ever seen was perhaps seven points.

In any case, the drop struck me as considerable. At my level, even a single point created a disparity beyond what other climbers could ever imagine. Overall, I estimated I had dropped about ten stats across the board. My body felt unfamiliar, my movements awkward. It was hardly ideal before a fight.

I needed to adjust quickly. After all the training I had endured, my movements had been calibrated to my equipped self. Now, I had to adapt. Starting with stretching, I rolled my shoulders, reached out my arms and legs, and swung my axe step by step until the motions began to settle.

When will Kalain appear?

Three minutes had already passed since the trial began, but he still hadn’t shown up. Because I had three hours, another possibility entered my mind. From Kalain’s standpoint, it would be far more advantageous to avoid me entirely. He could conceal himself in the mist or flee across this vast terrain, rather than engage me in combat.

I didn’t necessarily think that I was that much stronger than him, but compared to taking a risk by directly confronting me, he could win by simply evading—a much safer path. This world appeared immense, and the phantom was none other than Kalain as he had been on the ninety-fifth floor. He would at least be my equal at that time.

If he truly resolves to hide or run, tracking him down will be anything but simple.

Should he endure for the full three hours, victory would be his without question.

Still, in truth, that didn’t feel likely. A phantom inevitably mirrored its original, and the Kalain I had met and learned of didn’t cower or retreat. Not only had he conquered the tower, he—in an extremely short span—had also ascended to the rank of a first-class god. That was proof enough for me.

And besides, I bet the phantom isn’t aware it is an illusion.

If so, then perhaps he lay in ambush. He wasn’t the type to run, but an ambush wasn’t out of the cards. The Kalain I remembered had only climbed to the fifty-second floor, and beyond that, I knew little of his abilities or the full extent of his strength.

Regardless, it worked to my advantage that he hadn’t appeared immediately.

Maintaining my vigilance, I continued to stretch, focusing on dealing with any lingering sense of awkwardness in my movements. It wasn’t that I couldn’t fight competently, but in a decisive moment, I needed to be in complete control, not mostly in control.

Unfortunately, my axemanship was subtly sluggish, and that slight lag unsettled me. Even though Soulbound and I had fused our souls, we were out of sync by the faintest fraction of a beat, and that discrepancy also gnawed at me.

Boom!

Something suddenly drowned the world in darkness. In that moment, a wave of recognition coursed through me.

This is the world from my dream.

Only then did I realize that my nightmare from two nights ago hadn’t been the byproduct of tension or accumulated stress.

It was foresight.

Perhaps the tower had sought to grant me a glimpse of what lay ahead. Whatever the case, the scenery was identical to what I had witnessed. Unlike in the dream, however, I didn’t step forward. Instead, I stood fixed in place, carefully assessing the scene around me.

I instantly recognized the darkness surrounding me as a domain. Unlike the vague impression the dream had left me with, it was vivid and tangible. Just as I prepared to stir my divinity, a crimson gleam flashed within the murk.

Reptilian eyes.

The next instant, they lunged.

I raised my axe, but just like in the dream, I froze in place. The crimson blaze tore through the dark, surging directly toward me.

***

Kwon Su-Hyeok clenched his teeth. Rather than futilely struggling to force his limbs to move, he roused his divinity. It made an immediate difference. Blue-gold light shimmered around him before expanding rapidly into a radiant domain.

Only a domain could combat Kalain’s domain.

The crimson glow was already within striking distance. Kwon Su-Hyeok once again felt the diagonal slash he had experienced in his dream, but this time he swung Soulbound fiercely to block it.

Clang—!

A resounding metallic crash exploded through the air, the heavy impact driving both Kwon Su-Hyeok and the crimson light staggering backward. Having barely intercepted the attack, he caught sight of Kalain within the glow.

He appeared the same as he had on the fifty-second floor, resembling a lizardman, albeit not entirely. Instead, he looked more like the child of a dragon and a human. His pale skin bore patterns that resembled scales, his eyes glowed with a searing red light, and he had dragon-like horns jutting from his forehead. Moreover, a long, sinuous tail extended from his waist.

Su-Hyeok paid little attention to his appearance. His focus sharpened on something else entirely.

What the fuck?

Unlike him, Kalain was fully armed. Kwon Su-Hyeok stood barefoot, clad only in a climbing suit with an axe in hand, while Kalain wielded both weapons and armor.

Not that his equipment appeared flawless. The armor that would have once gleamed was now battered and scarred, riddled with scratches and holes. His cloak was in no better state, as half of it scorched away, the remaining fragments tattered and frayed. The longsword in his grip radiated a chilling sharpness despite the notches that marred its blade.

Ironically, Kwon Su-Hyeok had possessed far superior equipment in comparison. That wasn’t the point, though.

Why did the tower only take mine away?

The imbalanced situation was absurd, almost ridiculous.

Of course, the tower wanted to make every trial difficult, but Kalain was extraordinary. Even if it was a phantom, it possessed strength equal to the Kalain from the ninety-fifth floor. The realization that the phantom wielded all of his equipment on top of that left Kwon Su-Hyeok with a bitter sense of envy.

However, the anger that welled within him didn’t last long. He knew such emotions were useless in conquering a trial.

What mattered was victory.

Ugh. There is no helping it.

Kwon Su-Hyeok steadied his breathing. On the ninetieth floor, Thunder Axe had claimed that Kalain on the same floor surpassed him, but seeing Kalain directly, he wasn’t so certain. Still, the pressure he radiated was undeniable. It even exceeded the aura Eternal Feast possessed.

If the reward isn’t worth this, I will never forgive the tower.

Grinding his teeth, he conceded that, as a challenger who had somewhat followed in Kalain’s footsteps, a handicap was fair—he had to confront an equal without the benefit of equipment. Precisely because of that, though, he absolutely should be rewarded more than Kalain had.

In the taut silence, Kalain fixed him with an unblinking glare. Kwon Su-Hyeok could see immediately how drastically he had changed since the fifty-second floor—and not for the better. Back then, Kalain had been unsettled yet talkative, carrying at least a trace of familiarity. Now, his presence was sharper and colder. The solitude that had clung to him had deepened into something far more severe.

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

From the fifty-second to the ninety-fifth floor. He endured his own ordeals as well.

Kwon Su-Hyeok could imagine the hardships Kalain had faced. Without Ha Hee-Jeong, his own climb would have been far more grueling. Now wasn’t the time for sympathy, however. Kalain was his enemy. An enemy destined one day to ascend to the seat of a first-class god.

Kalain moved first. Kwon Su-Hyeok followed in kind, slamming his foot into the ground.

Within the blackened world, blue-gold radiance and oppressive darkness surged toward one another like colliding storms.