Tower of Heaven

The Gods had been more active recently.

As Atlas wasn't progressing through the Tower as fast as his peers and doing meaningless things instead, he'd lost the attention of most of the larger Gods who were watching him.

People like [Great Sage, Heaven's Equal] who had names that resonated even outside the Tower had moved on to other Ascenders, curious about the achievements of this generation's frontrunners.

Still, Atlas had a consistent following of sorts.

[Treacherous Phoenix] was always around. They didn't say much, only chiming in occasionally to announce their presence or offer small bits of help, but they seemed particularly interested in his journey.

[Huntress of the Night] liked to show up every once in a while and ask him how he was doing.

As for the rest, most of them had long and unexplainable names that belonged to lower Gods who didn't have the same established Myths as the ones with shorter, more direct names.

Atlas didn't have a habit of paying attention to them. He would answer their small questions and whims if he felt like it, but for the most part, he drew a clear line between him and his observers.

He wasn't climbing the Tower for their sakes, nor was he interested in being affiliated with any of them when he eventually became a God.

If they were going to make friends, they could do it in person when he arrived in their league.

But, that was a bit arrogant to think when Atlas was still in the Warrior Realms, was it not?

On another note, the heat around Atlas faded significantly in the past five years.

The story was still mentioned occasionally as people brought up the new Ascender who outsmarted the Great Societies, but that was the extent of it.

As Atlas remained under the twentieth floor, he saw the number of people looking for him lessen until it hit zero.

It took about three years, and in that time, the Guide never faced any sort of suspicion.

To begin with, the Guide operated with pure black hair and eyes. It was contrary even to the appearance Atlas used while running away, so it helped him keep his resemblance to a minimum.

The most important thing was his presence. He was constantly involved in the happenings of those eight floors, so people suspected him even less.

After all, why would a criminal place himself in the most obvious position? It just didn't make any sense.

There was also his knowledge about the floors.

Because he started working as a Guide early, he seemed to be someone who had cleared the trials of these floors many times already. As his reputation grew, rumors spread as well.

Some people said they remembered seeing him as far away as ten years ago. Without any way to verify these rumors, people took them as fact and mistook Atlas for some old expert.

Everything worked in his favor, allowing him to act uninhibited until the path in front of him was clear.

He made a decent number of connections with smaller societies and influences in these five years, but it wasn't as if they mattered. The Guide's identity was a secret and would always remain that way.

Atlas had no interest in fame.

Nevertheless, his time as a Guide was something he looked back on happily. Perhaps he would even do it again on higher floors.

What stood out more than anything else, and what haunted Atlas as he looked at the Celestial Ladder to the twentieth floor, wasn't anything that had been mentioned thus far.

It was instead a certain manual he found in Kallos' treasury.

'The Spirit-Severing Art…Kallos, what kind of monstrous thing did you leave for me?'

Atlas shivered just thinking about it.

"First, one must use their soul energy to form a knife within their knowledge sea. Then, they use that knife to split their soul into pieces. By circulating the spirit severing art, the soul will be stimulated into healing itself."

"But instead of simply mending together, the soul grows larger to fill in the gap left between both halves. When the two halves become large enough to meet again, they merge into one stronger and more complete form."

'...or so that manual said.'

Atlas tried it out. He went into his knowledge sea and tried to form the knife, but he only barely made it past that step.

The knife he made was tiny. Minuscule, even. However, it was enough to cut, so Atlas decided to try it out regardless.

The problem arose when the tip of the minuscule knife made contact with his knowledge sea.

Searing pain.

A searing pain that even he who had been through so much in both lives could not fathom or stand.

It seemed like a powerful art. Atlas knew it was necessary to practice if he wanted to make use of [Regeneration] and future Tower Skills well.

However, that was a task he left to a future version of himself.

As of now, he didn't want to deal with that kind of pain.

Instead, with both a clear path and a body that had reached a sufficient level, Atlas was much more inclined to challenging the twentieth floor so he could go to Vanatos and reach his other goals.

'The twentieth floor trial…'

It would be his first Cumulative Trial since the tenth floor.

Knowing how impactful it was to his growth, Atlas had to be curious about what the next floor had in store for him.

He looked back at the nineteenth floor's environment with a small smile behind his mask.

The past five years had been spent on a whim.

Sure, he used the time to prepare himself thoroughly for what was to come, but he didn't realistically have to do that.

He was evenly matched with the geniuses of this era. They went on and challenged the twentieth floor long ago. He also could have rushed there, completed the trial, and entered Vanatos to continue his training in peace for some years.

However, he did not choose that path.

Why was that?

Why was it that, at that time when he didn't yet know the kinds of secrets held on those floors, he chose to stay and practice in this environment?

Why did he choose to be a Guide and act suspiciously when he was being pursued by forces beyond his control?

'Hm. I guess it is impossible to rid myself of my current life's influence entirely.'

In the end, he was only in his twenties now. He had been a merged version of his two selves for five of those years, and it was obvious that the version with more experience took precedence, but Atlas made the conscious decision to keep his traits from both lives intact.

He acted like the expert he was, but the rash instincts of a young man were still present in his body. The decision to spend time on these floors was entirely influenced by those instincts.

'Though, it is not a bad thing.'

If it wasn't for that decision, would he have found the hidden story in the intermediary floors? Would he have acted as a Guide and learned so much?

He was thankful for every experience he had or would have from the start of his life until now and far into the future.

Those experiences would forge him into a better person than he was in his past life. They would take him to the peaks he had never seen.

With that thought in mind, he stepped forward and allowed the wind to carry him up the Celestial Ladder.

The Twentieth Floor's Cumulative Trial…

Just how great would it be?