At this point, Arthur was giving the challengers he passed a complete shock, but he paid them no attention—treating them all as figments of his imagination within this bizarre dream.
"I just hope I don't spend too long sleeping, or I'm gonna get an earful from Greg." Arthur, with no more than seven steps to the summit of the first floor, distracted himself with his thoughts while climbing.
Without paying any attention to the challengers he walked by, he kept climbing one step after the other.
He gave himself no time to rest until finally he reached the summit of the first floor.
This was an empty space.
Almost like a buffer zone for challengers, stepping on this floor caused no pain at all in comparison to the steps so far, but Arthur didn't need to be told this. The floor opened up into a vast space that served as a buffer zone for challengers. Stepping onto the flat surface brought immediate relief; unlike the stairs, this area caused no pain at all.
"Finally..." Arthur found a corner and sat down to rest a while before he continued climbing.
Looking around, he found that all the other challengers who were on this floor had their eyes closed with focused, relaxed expressions,
Some of them had their eyes open but looked almost lost, staring into empty space with so much interest.
After observing them for a few seconds, Arthur lost interest and was about to close his eyes to recover quickly before moving to climb when he noticed a few texts in his vision.
Huh?
[Congratulations, challenger, on reaching the first summit]
[The tower will now create your core]
The moment he finished reading, an unfamiliar energy surged into his body without warning—and without pain this time.
Slowly moving through him without his control or intervention, he noticed that the energy he felt was gathering towards the direction of his navel.
The energy gathering slowly built up, collapsing against each other, slowly compressing at a single point when finally..
Boom!
It seemed like an explosion went off in his head, and there, in his vision, a new line of text appeared.
[Congratulations Transcendent on awakening your core]
"Awakening.... awakening.." Arthur repeated the word to himself under his breath while trying to sense any changes within his body after 'awakening his core'.
"Is this what she was talking about?" Thinking back to the blond-haired girl who had spoken to him earlier.
"This is a core?"
He could finally feel a foreign sphere pulse within him. The fact that he could sense the interior of this body with such vivid clarity was the last thing on his mind once his perception brushed against it.
"This? This is new... Why is it so different this time?" Opening his eyes, he looked around once more; he finally realized why their eyes were so distant.
Staring into space.
"It seems they can all see the floating words too," Arthur muttered after realizing what was going on.
"They seem so relaxed..... Am I the only one confused?" He shook his head quickly, trying to stop his mind from spiraling.
"It's still the same stairs... same dream.... I'll eventually reach the top, then I'll wake up."
"There's no need to get too curious... they're all just a part of the dream." Arthur stood up quickly once he convinced himself and cast a glance at the next summit.
Without delay, he headed for the steps leading to the second summit. Clenching his jaw, he took the first step, completely ignoring the crowd around him. The onlookers were stunned that he was challenging the second summit after resting for barely a minute or two.
It was common knowledge that climbing the stairs drained willpower at a punishing rate—at least according to the academy professors. Proper recovery at each summit was essential to survive the climb without running out of willpower before reaching safety.
Of course, Arthur knew none of this.
Instead, drawing on his experience of scaling the tower repeatedly for several nights in a row, he drew out a pattern for climbing to the top with a ninety percent success rate each time.
"Ninety percent only if I don't count the final climb." Arthur calculated the timing for completing the climb while also calculating his percentage of succeeding.
"This stupid tower... what the hell does this even mean? I've heard that dreams are a gateway to the subconscious... but subconsciously all I want is a nice break from work."
"Not these pain-inflicting evil stairs..." Arthur was almost in tears thinking of the hard life he was gonna wake up to, distracting himself slowly till the pain and his surroundings became incredibly distant.
Without realizing it, his speed at climbing became faster the moment his focus shifted, with a step taken in intervals of two seconds.
This drew the attention of the challengers who had already got started on the climb to the second summit. It had to be noted that Arthur started his climb dead last, but at the moment he was almost halfway through the hundred steps leading to the second summit.
"How's he moving that fast?"
"...think about the pain that comes with moving that fast." The challengers he moved past began analyzing, seeing him blaze through the steps like the pain they felt didn't exist for him.
"No... way. No one can endure that much." Someone hissed in disbelief.
"Then how do you explain it? He's barely pausing to adjust before taking the next step." The conversations about Arthur kept going without the subject of interest having a clue whatsoever.
"Hey.... do you think he comes from one of the Famous transcendent families?"
This question attracted a lot of attention among the challengers heading for the second summit who witnessed Arthur's terrifying speed in scaling the steps.
"Hmnnn..... does that even matter?"
"Are you dumb, or did the pain from awakening stop your brain from working?"
"Think about it..." Another chimed in. "Think about the high rate of successful awakening among transcendent families...."
"And not just the success rate of awakening; most of them awaken with high-ranking authorities...."
"Are you saying....."
"Of course the possibility is high.... think about it. They must have some secret method to awaken."
"That might be true... If this were outside the tower, there's not much we could do but hehe...."
Arthur barely paid attention to the murmurs buzzing around him as the second summit came into view.
Only a couple of steps away.
"How long have I been asleep for anyway... I might need to push myself a little more before I get my ass handed to me at work." Arthur thought, still clenching his teeth but barely slowing down his movements.
The moment he stepped onto the second summit, the throbbing in his head hit him like a physical weight. The accumulated fatigue from enduring the relentless pain washed over him all at once, causing his legs to wobble.
Hah... hah...
He panted heavily while staying rooted in place to recover as much as he could.
"Damn." Arthur thought to himself, looking back down for a second,
"Might be my best record so far..."
It also helps that regardless of the floor... the pain at each step stays within the same range." Arthur finally caught his breath before moving tiredly to a secluded empty corner to rest.
"The crowd has thinned out significantly this time." The summit of the second floor barely had a dozen challengers compared to the crowd at the first summit.
Right on cue, a new set of floating words materialized in his vision
"This again? Is this some sort of game?" He stretched out a hand, testing to see if he could touch the floating words, only for his hand to pass right through without affecting the words glowing in his vision.
"I guess not... Authority? Why is it that I never saw any of this the other times?" Arthur read through the text slowly, trying to make sense of why his recurring dream was suddenly changing.
[Congratulations, challenger, on reaching the second summit]
[The tower will now determine your Authority Path]