Chapter 110 — The Tower’s Will
The staircase seemed quieter than the previous ones.
Azrael walked beside Seraphina as the five climbed toward Floor 29.
Nobody spoke for several minutes.
Then Orin broke the silence.
"There’s something I’ve been wondering."
Caelan glanced back.
"What?"
"The System."
Azrael looked over.
Orin scratched his head.
"Every floor gives us System messages. But those messages don’t feel like the same System that talks to Azrael and Seraphina."
Seraphina smiled.
"They aren’t."
Everyone stopped.
Caelan raised an eyebrow.
"They’re different?"
Azrael nodded.
"Our Systems belong to us."
He looked up the staircase.
"The Tower has its own."
Lyanna’s expression became thoughtful.
"So the Tower itself has a System?"
"Most likely."
Orin whistled.
"That’s actually pretty interesting."
Azrael’s eyes narrowed.
"And it means something important."
"What?"
"The Tower isn’t simply a structure."
Before anyone could respond—
The staircase ended.
They stepped onto Floor 29.
This time, the Tower didn’t create a battlefield.
Instead, they found themselves inside an enormous hall.
Thousands of glowing crystals floated above them.
Each crystal contained images.
Some showed forests.
Others showed cities.
Some showed people fighting.
Others showed people cultivating.
There were even images of different worlds.
Seraphina slowly turned.
"This..."
"It’s showing previous trials."
Caelan stared upward.
"Not just ours."
Azrael activated Origin Perception.
His expression became serious.
"These records are extremely old."
Orin looked at him.
"How old?"
"I can’t determine it."
That answer made everyone uncomfortable.
The Tower System appeared.
[Floor 29]
[Trial Type: Observation]
[Objective: Observe.]
[Rule:]
[Do not interfere.]
[Completion Requirement: Identify the Truth.]
Orin frowned.
"Identify what truth?"
No response.
Azrael looked around.
"Then we observe."
The five began walking through the hall.
Each crystal contained a different scene.
One showed a group of adventurers fighting a massive beast.
Another showed cultivators climbing a mountain.
Another showed a civilization constructing an enormous city.
Another showed a lone warrior sitting beneath a tree.
Seraphina stopped.
"These trials..."
"They’re familiar."
Azrael nodded.
"Some of them resemble floors we’ve already completed."
They continued.
Then Seraphina stopped again.
She was staring at one particular crystal.
Inside it was a young girl standing inside a garden.
She was trying to restore a dying tree.
Seraphina’s eyes widened.
"That’s my trial."
Azrael approached.
The crystal showed the Garden of Genesis.
The same World Tree.
The same dying branches.
The same trial Seraphina had completed.
But there was something different.
The image didn’t begin when Seraphina entered.
It began long before.
Another person stood before the tree.
Then another.
And another.
Hundreds of people had attempted the same trial.
Most failed.
Some reached the tree.
Some managed to restore part of it.
But none completed it.
Seraphina stared silently.
"So the Tower has been testing people with the same trials for years."
Azrael nodded.
"Possibly much longer."
He moved to another crystal.
It showed his own Combat Understanding trial.
The wooden sword guardian.
The same lesson.
Different challenger.
Another crystal showed the Survival Floor.
Another showed the Civilization Floor.
Another showed the Foundation Floor.
The Tower had been watching.
Recording.
Repeating.
Learning.
Azrael’s expression became increasingly serious.
"This isn’t just a dungeon."
Seraphina looked at him.
"What is it?"
"I don’t know."
He paused.
"But it’s definitely not mindless."
They continued deeper.
Eventually, they reached a crystal unlike the others.
It was black.
No image appeared inside.
Azrael approached.
The moment he touched it—
BOOM!
The entire hall trembled.
Every crystal suddenly went dark.
The System disappeared.
Then a different message appeared.
Not the usual Tower System.
The text was strange.
[Unauthorized Observation Detected.]
Azrael immediately stepped back.
"What?"
The message vanished.
Then another appeared.
[Observer Access Denied.]
Seraphina looked around.
"Who is observing us?"
Nobody answered.
The Tower System returned.
[Continue the Trial.]
[Do not investigate.]
Azrael stared at the message.
"That’s suspicious."
Orin nodded.
"Very."
Lyanna looked at the black crystal.
"Maybe we should listen."
Azrael shook his head.
"No."
Seraphina looked at him.
"You think the Tower doesn’t want us investigating?"
"I think something interrupted the Tower’s System."
Caelan frowned.
"Something stronger than the Tower?"
Azrael didn’t answer.
Because he couldn’t be certain.
Instead, he looked at the black crystal again.
The strange message had disappeared.
But he had felt something when he touched it.
Not hostility.
Not hatred.
Recognition.
As if something inside had recognized him.
Seraphina suddenly walked toward another crystal.
"This one."
Inside was a scene of a ruined sanctuary.
A woman was healing injured people.
Seraphina recognized the technique.
"Elder Iris..."
She stepped closer.
But the person inside the crystal wasn’t Elder Iris.
It was someone else.
Someone using the exact same technique.
Seraphina’s eyes widened.
"This happened before."
Azrael joined her.
The woman inside the crystal eventually succeeded.
The sanctuary recovered.
Then the crystal’s image changed.
Another person appeared.
Then another.
Seraphina realized something.
"The Tower isn’t simply testing strength."
Azrael nodded.
"It’s preserving knowledge."
The crystals weren’t trophies.
They were records.
Every successful trial.
Every failure.
Every technique.
Every decision.
The Tower had accumulated an enormous archive of experience.
Seraphina smiled.
"That’s why the trials change."
Azrael looked at her.
"Explain."
"It observes how people respond."
She pointed toward the crystals.
"Then it creates trials based on what previous people learned."
Azrael’s expression changed.
"So the Tower evolves."
"Exactly."
The System appeared.
[Observation Complete.]
[Truth Identified.]
[The Tower learns.]
[Floor 29 Complete.]
The hall began disappearing.
The crystals faded one after another.
Before the final crystal vanished, Azrael noticed something.
A small inscription appeared on the black crystal.
Only for a moment.
He read it.
"The Tower remembers."
Then it disappeared.
The five reappeared on the staircase.
A new staircase extended upward.
The number 30 appeared.
Orin looked at Azrael.
"You saw something, didn’t you?"
Azrael nodded.
"The Tower remembers."
Caelan frowned.
"Meaning?"
"I don’t know yet."
Seraphina looked toward the next floor.
"But we’ll eventually find out."
The System appeared one final time.
[Tower Progress]
[Floor 29 Complete]
[Participants: 5]
[Party Synchronization: 100%]
[Next Floor: 30]
[Special Notice]
[The Tower has recognized the party.]
Everyone became silent.
Orin slowly looked at the others.
"What does that mean?"
Azrael looked toward the staircase.
"I don’t know."
Seraphina stepped beside him.
"Then we’ll find out."
They continued upward.
But this time, Azrael wasn’t thinking about the next trial.
He was thinking about the black crystal.
The strange message.
And the feeling that something inside the Tower had recognized him.
For the first time, he wondered whether the Tower was merely testing them...
Or whether it had been waiting for them.