Chapter 7 ~<781st Tower of Ascensions>—I~

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After teleporting through the portal, Arthur was overcome by a feeling of vertigo but now his consciousness was finally returning. Slowly but steadily.

After regaining his consciousness, he slowly opened his eyes and was well........ just.....surprised by what he saw next. He was in a meadow of sorts due to its lack of woody plants. He looked ahead and discovered that the meadow stretched out to the ends of his vision. Above was a clear blue sky, lit by the sun, he gazed upward at it but immediately turned away since the light intensity was so high, his eyes couldn't bear it.

'Wait. What??' He said inwardly as he pondered how HIS well trained eyes couldn't handle merely looking at the sun. He deduced it was either something had happened that messed up his physique or the sun's light intensity was just that strong.

He turned backwards to look behind him and found an actual forest a few metres away from his current position. He described the emotion as surprise since he had already witnessed sights that were either more horrific or breathtaking than the one that lay in front of him right now.

After taking in the sight, he sat back down on the meadow's green grass and gathered his thoughts. He recalled all the events that happened, leading up to this point and was overcome by an unbridled rage.

He was angry at the monarchs for tricking him during the battle for <REGRESSION>.

He resented himself for being too foolish as well as weak to figure out and deal with the problems that faced him then.

And most of all. He resented the sovereigns for being the masterminds behind the actions that lead up to Asura's death.

His head was filled with an abnormal anger and his thoughts only veered towards how he could properly avenge himself and his master now that he finally had a body again. He was blinded by his anger so much that he failed to notice a very fundamental issue. Until.

'ahh, it seems that your finally awake'. He heard a mysterious voice in his head and responded by asking

'Who's there?' He was replied by the same voice that said

'i am a gift that Asura left behind for you. Call me the second fragment'. He was silent for a while as he recalled when Asura said he had left a 'gift' behind for him. If this was the 'gift' then..... He decided to follow up the conversation by asking.

'the second fragment'? What kind of name is that?'

He was promptly replied by a 'i am afraid I you aren't yet qualified to receive information on my origins. All you need to know is that I will be serving as your personal assistant as I possess a vast library of information that you can make use of to not be considered suspicious in this new world'.

He was again silent for a while probably thinking about the not being 'qualified' yet. He decided to ignore this then he asked

'if what you say is true, then where am I currently?' Arthur asked, half to actually find out where he was and the other half to test whether the claim of possessing a vast library of information was true'.

'the location you are currently in is one of the zones found on the seventh floor within the < 781st Tower of Ascension>. Apparently due to the conditions during which you were transported, you ended up in this place'.

'i see. So what is the <781st Tower of Ascensions>?'. He asked again, fully convinced of the voices' earlier claim.

'it is a place that is said to be created by the great sovereigns themselves'. After hearing the word sovereign, he listened to the voice in his head carefully, fully intent on gleaning useful information about them from what his self-acclaimed assistant was about to say.

'it a place built with a very complex structure. It is divided into several 'floors' ranging from one to a hundred of which its difficulty level increases the higher you go, but within each of these 'floors' exist several areas called 'zones' which are the main location where the challenges occur and are faced. Each floor contains countless zones and when you clear the challenge presented by said zone, you will be allowed to move up to next floor'.

'it is a place fraught with danger but <Ascenders>, the name given to the individuals that challenge the tower, still challenge it to either get stronger or for the sake of purely making money as each zone you clear offers you a reward that may be of value in the real world. Of course, the value of these rewards increase the higher one climbs the tower'.

And thus ended the long but informing explanation concerning the <781st Tower of Ascensions>.

"I see, it all makes some sense now at least". His eyes then grew wide eyed before asking inwardly

'oh, can you hear what I say with my mouth or......'

'affirmative. I can not only hear you but also other people who are within your hearing range'.

"Sweet". He said out loud.

"Oh, you said your name is the second fragment' right?"

'Affirmative'.

"I'll be calling you no.2 for convenience sake. Is that okay with you?" He asked considerately.

'i have no reason to oppose your decision'. No.2 simply answered.

"Alright". Arthur said as he got up from where he sat on the floor.

'and what should I call you. Master?'

"Huh, no, call me..."

There was a brief silence as Arthur thought for a while. He thought that he had already failed as a ruler so he didn't deserve his old name Arthur anymore, so he thought. He remembered a conversation he had with Asura concerning his son. Asura told him the son's name and that was the name he decided to adopt as a reminder of his goals to avenge his master.

'yeah, I think he said his name was......'

By this time Arthur was aware that no. 2 knew the name he had chosen, but he still said it out loud to convince himself.

"From now, call me....... Eden!" That was the name he finally decided on.

After the conversation with no.2. Eden decided to do a check on his karmic energy.

He harnessed his energy into an aura and what happened next truly shocked him. Instead of a well trained and powerful cerulean aura, he felt an unrefined and miniscule wave of light blue karmic energy which left him wondering.

'what the hell happened to my karmic energy?!'

He was soon answered with a reply from no. 2 saying

'it was quite difficult to create a body that could fit in ALL of your extremely powerful karmic energy, and due to the lack of time he had to settle with this one. It's not that bad as it is a seventeen year old body posseing extremely athletic traits and sharp features'.

I strolled to a stream at the right side of where I previously was and looked into the clear water. I saw a reflection of myself and honestly, I was quite shocked. This body possessed very good muscles for its age as well as a good height. I now had a cool looking black hair, a pointed nose and perfectly curved blue eyes as well as other very distinct and handsome features that completely bests my old looks as king Arthur by an unbelievable margin. Given a few more years to fully develop, I might even become as handsome as Kaiser, the retainer who bested me.

He could already understand that Asura did his best creating a handsome, almost beautiful, body like this one even with it's low capacity, he still appreciated it. He then asked.

"Hey, can you maybe put the amount of karmic energy I can handle into numbers, so I can get a better grasp on my level".

'alright'. No.2 answered before adding.

'you can harness an aggregate of 9.68% of your original power. The value represents an exponential progression the more you learn to harness'.

Huh? So low.

He could only use 9.68% of his total power and this figure represented an exponential progression which meant that, if he got stronger, his power level would increase by the amount he gained multiplied by the former power level. And this meant that right now, he was still extremely weak compared to originaly, the gap between them was unfathomably wide.

"Is there any way I can increase my output". He could already guess a way but he still decided to confirm.

'yes'. No 2 replied.

'you can increase your output by training or hunting or any method one would usually use to get stronger'.

He heard this and let out a huge sigh

*Sigh*

"So basically, I have to start getting stronger from scratch huh".

'not exactly scratch but mostly'.

'Damn....' he inwardly cursed.

No.2 sensed this and decided to let him know.

'what you need right now is an environment to hunt and this tower provides exactly that'.

Edens eyes lit up and he said.

" Wait, you don't mean..."

'thats right, you can get stronger right here'.

"Ha". He let out a small laugh before

"Hahahahaha! Now that more like it. Alright now am motivated, let's do this".

'start by clearing this zone first and then progress your way upwards'.

"Got it".

He looked up, not to the sun but just above him.

"Monarchs, sovereigns, it doesn't matter. Because I am going to personally make sure that all those bastards die a painful death!!"

He roared.

~END~