28 - Divine Water

This time the trip seemed normal. I went through the whole process in the Ring of Deterrence getting to a swirl but there was no Beast. It seemed to confirm that whatever caused the Beast to come when I left the Familiar of Zero plane, was specific to that plane.

Then I melded with the destination Creation Mystery.

It was dark. So dark I could hardly see anything.

"What the fuck?"

I wielded Agate and made some light.

It was a cave of some sort…?

Suddenly the ground fell.

"Oh shit!"

I looked down and saw what seemed to be a massive metal gate on the ground. Why the hell was it made facing this direction and not upright like a normal gate?

I tried to fly up, but some force stopped me. A golden light spilled out from the gate and seemed to grip onto me.

Uh oh. Had I been brought back to the Ring of Deterrence again? Was this the gate to the Root? Was I about to return to nothing—

O O O

"Hmm? Another visitor so soon? My, my, what an interesting day this has become."

I got up from a kneeling position and glanced around carefully. The speaker was some kind of humanoid creature with white skin, wearing a black robe. It had 3 fingers on its hands, and a head that was long with a weird slit for eyes. And I don't mean a slit pupil, the eye hole itself was literally a massive slit that ran across half his head and there was just a tiny white pupil in the centre.

He wielded a staff with two blue orbs at its end. A weapon? It walked towards me. I couldn't tell whether it was menacing or not with that featureless face, but it didn't look friendly. Maybe because I couldn't tell where its mouth was.

I drew Derflinger while sending Agate into agatespace.

"Please, wait. I have no intention of fighting you. You are a guest here," it said, holding up a hand as if gesturing to stop.

"Is that so? Where am I?" I asked.

This place looked like a massive, opulent hall of sorts, made of stone and metals.

"My name is Headon, Guardian of the lowest floor of the Tower. And this is the Tower. What is your name?"

Ah. I recognized that. The Tower of God story. I knew this one reasonably well, but the story was quite complex with a massive world. The world was so massive that knowing the story didn't mean a whole lot.

"You can call me Axion," I said in response.

"May I ask why you have entered this Tower, Mr. Axion?"

The next question was, when was I? Hopefully not too far off from my canon knowledge. Give me something to work with.

"You're asking me? I was just minding my own business and exploring. Then I walked over a huge set of doors when it was too dark to see anything. It opened by itself and dragged me in here."

"I see. But nobody comes across the Tower by chance. There must be something you desire…Fame? Glory? P—"

"Everyone has desires. There's nothing special about that," I said, cutting off his speech.

He didn't look annoyed, but merely nodded.

"True enough, but you were fortunate enough to find this place. Therefore, you have an opportunity unlike any other. To fulfill your desire. Whatever it may be, you can find it here. At the top of the Tower."

"Am I supposed to just take your word for it? Sounds like a scam," I said.

"You are free to decline and leave, if you wish," said Headon.

I looked around. There was no exit.

"Where is the way out?"

"…" Headon shrugged. "I wouldn't know. I'm just the Guardian of the First Floor."

"Then how do I leave?" I asked, out of curiosity.

"The same way you came, I imagine," he answered.

Did he know I could leave by planar travel?

"Or, perhaps at the top of the Tower. As I said, whatever you desire, you can find it there," Headon added.

"Right…not much of a choice there is it? Let's say I want to climb this Tower. What do I have to do?"

Finally, Headon smiled widely, and I saw his mouth hidden on the bottom half of his elongated face.

"Climbing the Tower is a long and dangerous journey. On each floor, you will be presented with tests to determine if you are worthy of proceeding. The test is determined by the Guardians, the Floor Administrators, of course, or their chosen representatives, and the difficulty increases at each level."

He tapped his staff on the ground, and a piece of wall slid away at the far end.

"My test for you is simple. It is 'Ball'. You must pop the ball in there by any means. But it is guarded by the white steel eel. Normally the eel is very mild mannered, but it is breeding season and it hasn't eaten anything in a month. The tank behind me is filled with water, but it is of a special sort. You shall be able to breath it, so do not fear that you will drown."

Even before he explained, I felt something tremor in my body.

Voices rose and started to bombard me with incomprehensible words in my mind.

"The Power of Water…" I said almost unconsciously.

"Hmm? Are you intrigued by the Shinsoo? Perhaps this shall be your reason to climb the Tower. Shinsoo is a miraculous thing…it is everywhere in the Tower and produced by it. It is the energy of life for the residents of the Tower. It may be used for many things…to create attacks, control the elements, eternal youth, or even attain the powers of a god."

The rising excitement of the water spirits was unlike any reaction they'd ever shown before.

Even the air in this hall was filled with Shinsoo, except at a much lower density.

As I breathed it in, the water spirits were driven into a frenzy. They demanded more. To go into that cage and immerse myself within this divine water.

Cautiously, I attempted to absorb some Shinsoo into my circuits as if it were mana, and found that it was possible though it was quite difficult to absorb into my circuits and convert into magical energy. This was technically a mana-rich environment, so it was easier to retain mana within my circuits, but it also wouldn't help me refill my reserves any faster than a low-mana environment.

"Derf, can you feel it? This Shinsoo in the air," I asked aloud.

"Heh, yeah, I can. It feels comfortable. I think I'll like this place."

"An Ignition weapon? What a surprise. It has been a very long time since I have seen such a thing brought in from the outside," said Headon.

"Can you absorb it?" I asked my sword.

"Not directly, sorry," said Derf. I thought as much. He could only absorb refined forms of magic energy, and Shinsoo was a little strange to begin with. I doubted that he could absorb Shinsoo based attacks at all.

"Well then, what do you think of this Tower? Should we give it a try, for a while, at least?"

"Sure. Sounds exciting," said Derf. "If every test is going to be like this, we'll have plenty of fights ahead!"

Even if Derf didn't agree, I'd already made my decision.

This place was full of insanely powerful beings, and I probably ranked near the bottom at the moment. While it was questionable whether anything I learned to do with Shinsoo would be useful once I went to planes without it, it was clear that the water spirits were receiving some kind of benefit by being here.

Normally each use of the water stone reduced its size little by little, and restoring it took ages in regular mana-rich water, which is why they were very reluctant to use any powerful effects. I traded them lifeforce for their help, but lifeforce was not a direct substitute for their lost water mana

If I could use this place to restore or even grow the water stone, enhancing my connection with them to the extent that they became more friendly and helpful, then it would definitely be worth it.

As I had no means to force the water spirits to obey me, it was a give-and-take relationship. The more I helped them, the more they would help me in return, or so I expected.

Even if I was grossly outmatched here by the big threats, the Rankers who'd reached the highest known levels, I'd still have reasonable room to grow by progressing up the floors with other Regulars, the people climbing the Tower. Hopefully nobody would come assassinate me straight off the bat, and I could always planeshift in the worst case.

"Alright, I'll take your test," I said, walking forward through the massive steel bars of the cage.

As soon as I waded into the highly concentrated Shinsoo, I realized that this test would be far more difficult than it looked.

It was so dense that I could barely enter it at all, like some kind of thick barrier rather than water.

If I couldn't move in this Shinsoo, how was I supposed to get to the ball, let alone fight the eel, which had no trouble swimming in here?

Just then, the Shinsoo gave away as if the resistance had been only an illusion. Instead, it started flowing around me and into me.

A different feeling came over me, one of euphoria.

It was incredible!

As if my whole body was gaining nourishment just from being in its presence.

The taste, the feeling, everything about it was perfect.

I gasped and breathed in even more of the Shinsoo, gulping it down like some kind of uncontrollable addict.

"Uh…Partner? We got a battle to fight!" Derf called out when the white steel eel came at me.

My body was temporarily taken control of by Derf as he dodged the hungry mouth that threatened to swallow me.

What was that? Those feelings…they weren't mine. They were the water spirits, but they'd almost overwhelmed me.

Even now, I could feel the water spirits attempting to absorb more of the Shinsoo, and taking it through the Armoriont and my skin. But the Shinsoo itself seemed alive and was not impressed by our attempts to consume it, resisting the suction.

This Shinsoo must have been something truly amazing for the water spirits to react that way, but I couldn't afford to be distracted in such a way during battle.

Yet, whatever they did to make me able to move in this dense Shinsoo, I also needed them to keep that up, so I couldn't block them out entirely.

I would just have to shove those feelings of euphoria into a corner of my mind, mentally tuning them out, and retain focus on the battle.

The eel crashed onto the floor after missing me but quickly turned around for another attempt.

It was fast, and while the Shinsoo felt less heavy than before, I still needed Derf's boost just to keep up in this incredibly dense Shinsoo.

"Sorry Derf, I'm fine now! Let's do this!" I shouted.

Derf stopped his spell and returned control to me. I lost the boost, but more Reinforcement made up the difference.

I tried flying up to dodge, though my wings were having difficulty straining against the dense Shinsoo. My legs worked better in this environment.

But before the eel could take advantage of my momentary lack of movement, I shouted the name I'd given to Derflinger's technique which was a signal for him to use it. Because we couldn't communicate mentally, our techniques had to be called aloud so he knew what to use.

"Slash Beam – Level Two!"

When I swung down, an arc of energy was released from Derflinger and crashed into the white steel eel.

I sent a relatively weak beam to test it out. The eel was blown back but otherwise unharmed except for a small bruise on its skin.

It roared in anger, then sped towards me again. Not much in the way of tactics, but I could hardly blame it when it didn't have any other methods of attack.

"Slash Beam – Level Four!"

Another blast of energy hit it and this time its skin was ripped apart, exposing its internal organs through a gash as large as a person. It wailed in pain and writhed on the ground, but looked like it could keep going. The thing was huge and that kind of injury was probably a minor problem for it.

I took the chance while it was stunned to take out a laser gun and fired right into its eyes. The gun seemed to power on slightly slower than normal.

It screamed in rage, but was blinded by the attack. It lashed out randomly, but obviously couldn't find me anymore.

I leisurely took the time to test the power of the laser gun against its less vulnerable parts, and found that there was a great deal of resistance. The laser would still cut into it, but it took a while to burn through the skin.

The laser gun would probably serve better as a precision tool than a weapon once we got past the early levels. Though something was also interfering with its function…it was supposed to be a waterproof gun, but perhaps this Shinsoo couldn't be blocked that easily. If true, other electronics would probably have a worse time as I went up the Tower and they were exposed to Shinsoo for longer. For now, my visor was still working alright, thankfully. I should at least be able to keep using these things up to the 20th Floor, seeing as this level of Shinsoo concentration wasn't really common until then. Headon had prepared a super dense Shinsoo cage just for this test.

"Nice going, Partner," said Derf.

"You weren't bad yourself, Derf," I said back.

I nimbly dodged around the still living eel and took some of the blood from its open wound to keep as a sample for later analysis by Amelia, storing it in the Armoriont.

Then I left the blind eel alone and went to the black ball at the back of the cage.

"Hmm…" I swung down on the ball with Derflinger, but it didn't pop.

That wasn't unexpected, seeing as Derf's current form as a cellulose based sword didn't have very sharp edges, but a yellow light soon covered him as he sharpened himself with magic.

I cut down again and the ball popped easily.

"Congratulations, Irregular. You have successfully passed the test," said Headon after I exited the cage.

"Irregular…what does that mean?" I asked, pretending I didn't know.

"Those who are chosen by the Tower to climb are called Regulars. You will be climbing with them on the way up. But very rarely, there are those who were not chosen, yet found their way into the Tower by themselves. You are one such individual, an Irregular. It is often said that Irregulars bring great changes to the Tower…I shall look forward to the changes you shall bring," said Headon.

"I see. So, what now? How do I get up?"

"Ah, before that, I have an offer for you."

"Hm? What is it?"

He looked to the side and tapped his staff. Another section of the wall opened up to reveal a girl with blonde hair who looked stunned.

"Come here, girl," said Headon, gesturing with his fingers.

O O O

[Mini-Interlude]

"This one seems a little stronger…a little older too," said a young woman with black hair and red highlights, wearing a white long sleeve jacket over a black shirt and skirt. It was Yuri Zahard, one of the princesses of Zahard, the King of the Tower. "But he doesn't seem to be a monster like Enryu or Urek Mazino either."

"I can't quite get a read on him either…it might be because they're Irregulars," said a very short white-haired man wearing a backpack almost as tall as he was. This was Evan Edrok, a High Ranker like Yuri, who served as her Guide in the Tower, discerning the paths to take.

The two of them had just observed another Irregular go up the Tower, a little kid that couldn't even fight. Yuri had lent him her Black March, an extremely powerful Ignition weapon from the 13 Month Series that were awarded only to princesses of Zahard. It was illegal, but Yuri wasn't too concerned about skirting around the rules—only if she could get away with it, of course.

They'd started to leave when another Irregular showed up, and so they decided to stick around a little longer, observing from the above the ceiling tiles again

The new Irregular was suited up in a full body armor—very stylish according to Yuri—made of gleaming gold scales of what was probably a reptilian creature of some kind, with two crystalline shoulder guards silver in color. He wore a large red two-piece cloak that trailed behind him, and very much had the appearance of a warrior, though he also wore a black visor so they couldn't see his eyes.

"Hoh! That's smart. So he's not a brute like Mazino," Yuri said when the Irregular blinded the eel. "Maybe he's just holding back his real power then."

"I do get the feeling he wasn't particularly afraid of the eel, not like the boy. He's just experimenting to gauge himself against something new and unfamiliar," said Evan.

"What's he doing with that blood? Ugh, don't tell me he's one of those scientific types?" said Yuri, apparently annoyed for some reason.

Once he popped the ball and nothing abnormal happened like with Baam, Yuri decided to go. "Looks like that's that. Nothing too special to get excited about, we'll just have to see what he does from here. Come on, Evan, we gotta get going and find Baam to get back the Black March!"

"Yes, lady Yuri!"

They didn't notice Headon offering the new Irregular an unusual deal, or the third Irregular of the day.

O O O

[Kaleidus]

"Axion, I'd like you to meet Rachel."

On a closer look, the girl had a lot of freckles on her face, and seemed to be in her late teens. She wore a pinkish dress with a large red ribbon tied around her waist. Her appearance couldn't be said to be beautiful or ugly, it was simply average.

"That our reward for beating your test?" Derflinger asked.

Rachel's eyes widened, looked to Headon, and said something timidly, but I couldn't understand her. It wasn't a language I knew.

Headon chuckled. "I'm afraid not. Your reward is simply the opportunity to go up to the next Floor. Rachel here is somebody who came by earlier but she declined to take my test, believing it to be suicidal. Nevertheless, she hopes to climb the Tower. You see, a friend of hers is on the second floor and climbing the Tower. I'd like to ask you to help her get through the next area," said Headon.

I knew of her of course. One of the characters I appreciated for their unabashed selfishness. In a way, she was very much like me, willing to use anything and anyone to gain the power that did not belong to her and defy "mediocrity" that fate had assigned to her.

Even though her methods were amateurish and sometimes counterproductive, she was leagues ahead of Baam, the protagonist, who was simply born with a great power and destiny.

So it was only natural that this offer intrigued me. But why did Headon offer it? Why does Headon want Rachel to go up like this? What happened to that big guy that went up with Rachel anyways? I couldn't even remember. Arghgyon? Arkong? Whatever his name was.

There were obviously many schemes and organizations involved with Rachel's climb, and getting myself mixed up in that was dangerous, but then again, being an Irregular was dangerous enough already given how many parties were interested in us.

It was perhaps safer to be with Rachel as nobody in the story seemed to be aware of her status as an Irregular, whereas many people quickly found out about Baam. That was how he got captured by FUG and forced to work for them, while Rachel flew under the radar. Logically Yuri Zahard, a Zahard princess who helped Baam on this Ball test, should've known about Rachel too if she got an alert about Baam when he entered, but she didn't so Headon must have hid it somehow. Rather than striking out on my own, it seemed prudent to take advantage of Headon's support for as long as possible.

Plus, it didn't seem so bad to work with a fellow Irregular, and one that I could probably get along quite well with. But still, I had to act like I didn't know about any of that.

"I suppose I might be willing to help, but do you expect me to do it for free? Given what you've said, she's not very strong. If she couldn't pass the test on this floor, what use will she be on higher floors if the difficulty rises?"

"Naturally, I will offer you a payment for it," he made a flourish with his hand and a spherical object appeared. "This is a B-grade Pocket. It is quite a valuable device which you will have difficulty finding on the lower floors. It has a variety of features, including the translation of other languages. With a B-grade Pocket, you will be able to understand almost all of the Tower's languages. It also serves as your wallet, phone, a storage system, and more. If you turn down this offer, you will likely be unable to get a Pocket of such quality until the 30th Floor, and only at great cost even then."

I looked at the Pocket carefully. It was certainly a good payment. If I remembered correctly, regulars were given E-grade pockets. Although I didn't know what exact differences there were between grades, Headon certainly wasn't lying about its value. Evan gave Baam a high grade Pocket early on so it never came up much in the story, but I could imagine most Regulars working hard to buy better Pockets from the Workshop, and the first opportunity to get the higher grade ones would be on the 30th Floor, the Workshop's first headquarters.

Headon continued, as if interpreting my silence as hesitation. "Furthermore, I only ask that you help her through the Second Floor. Whether you wish to continue climbing with her after that will be up to you. Do we have a deal?"

"Fine. I'll do it."

Headon looked pleased and handed the Pocket to me and demonstrated a few features, such as turning it invisible and registering a profile as a Regular, which would give access to various facilities and a banking account.

"Rachel, was it? I take it you heard what Headon said? About me helping you through the next Floor?" I asked Rachel.

She nodded. "Yes, thank you Mr. Axion. But please call me Michelle when there are others around."

"Alright, then let's get going."

Rachel took out her own Pocket and wore a cloak over herself.

Then Headon pointed his staff at us, and we were engulfed in light.

O O O

A/N: A new adventure begins in the Tower of God! MC is only aware of the webtoon canon, though there will be elements from both webtoon and anime.

Reviews:

CILinkz: That's a great idea. Once MC has more powers I'll consider implementing a system like that, with relevant in-story justification. The portal stuff will be much later, or only available in some places.

FerunaLutelou: From MC's perspective, that's actually pretty unlikely though. The canon Worm he knows didn't have Scion destroy everything at once (like the planet). Humanity will survive in smaller groups across many dimensions. That's actually also Cauldron's prediction and the rationale for the Terminus project. In that case, MC will still have access to a lot of resources. And if the planets do get destroyed, he can just plane shift again quickly after he arrives.

And thanks to everyone else who reviewed. I appreciate all of them, and to everyone who said they love this story, I hope I can continue to meet your expectations.