Chapter 187- The Age of Climbing

"Alright then, since the story will be long, please perk up your ears, young man." He said to Liu Guanyi and then turned to Adori. "And you too, your highness." He said softly.

Then, he inhaled a deep breath first, before beginning to recount the history of the region, the middle area of the 80th floor.

"It starts like this…"

Many and many millenniums ago, even before the Age of Genesis, the time when the Zahard Empire and the ten great families were established and starting to build and spread out the foundation that would eventually become what they were now, there was a time when the tower wasn't ruled by anyone.

That era was called the Age of Climbing.

The name was self-explanatory, it was the time when Zahard and his companions entered the tower and began to climb to the top. At the time, humans weren't the majority of the population in the tower. Instead, the tower was filled with many different races and species that even though they stood on two legs or bipedal, they were far from being humanlike or humanoids.

Many of them had the appearance of animals such as alligators, lizards, fish, octopus, squid, and many more animals. Not only that their physical power was far superior compared to regular humans, but they even had many unique special powers that they didn't have.

It was their incredible shinsu quality.

Many of them could turn their shinsu into different elemental powers, from earth, fire, water, ice, nature, and many more.

Hence, it was natural for them to be able to thrive easily in the dangerous and unforgiving environment of the tower compared to the much weaker human race and other species.

They were called by the name of…

The "Native Ones".

It was easy to say that they were the powerhouses and rulers of the tower at that time. However, this would change after Zahard and his companions magically entered the tower.

At first, they were fascinated by these, a dozen or so people, who had come from a place that was unheard of, a place that existed out of the tower, a word they called "the outside".

For the native ones or everyone in the tower that was, they were unbelievably interesting people with so many different cultures and worldviews. After all, as they knew it, they have always been living in the tower for as long as they knew.

Zahard and his companions knew so many different and fascinating terms and things that they had never heard or thought of before, such as the sun, air, stars, planets, worlds, etc.

Because of this, many of them decided to join their adventure and went climbing the tower along with them, forging a deep relationship.

The irregulars didn't only attract the native ones, however, as many powerful warriors of the human race also joined their adventure. The notable one was Quadrado, a powerful ancient warrior that joined them and accompanied them to the top.

However, there was one particular man that was even more special than Quadrado that joined Zahard and his companion as well.

He identified himself as…

Grace Mirchea Luslec.

But there was something that the Zahard Empire and the ten great families hid deeply ever since they became the rulers of the tower in the Genesis Era, it was the truth about the story of their journey.

When king Zahard made a deal with the guardians and proclaimed himself as the king of the tower, his companions also established themselves as the great nobles.

However, even though the number of the great noble families was only ten, the actual number of king Zahard's companions that accompanied him was actually more than ten.

It was twelve.

There were two more unknown members that Zahard and the leaders of the ten great families didn't say to the public, according to the records, most likely due to the conflict they would have against them in the later stages of the Age of Climbing.

You see, what attracted Grace Mirchea Luslec wasn't Zahard, the leader of the group of irregulars, but instead, it was the two unknown members of his companions. This particular historical moment happened on the 80th floor, his hometown and birth place.

When Zahard and his companions passed there as they climbed up, they stayed there until they managed to finish the guardian's floor test.

During this time, Luslec met the two unknown members of the group. They hit it up very quickly and became close friends.

He was moved by their humble attitude, kindness, and sincerity that made them far different from the other members of the companion and pledged himself to them, and joined the two of them to climb the tower.

After some periods, Zahard, his companions, and those who joined along the way managed to reach the top and become Rankers. Thousands of years passed by in peace as his other companions other than the two unknown members started to have descendants.

However, at some point, a divide started to form between the two unknown members and king Zahard himself.

The reason why wasn't stated in the record but the divide became bigger and bigger over time and eventually broke the tens of thousands of years of peace.

The tipping point, according to the record, was when Zahard, after creating a deal with the guardians, decided to stop climbing the tower despite only reaching the 134th floor of the tower and was about to proclaim himself as the king of the tower.

The two unknown members didn't like his decision and began to oppose his reign.

Luslec, as one of the companions that accompanied them to the top, decided to support them as he had pledged his loyalty to them. Just like the two, he had no love for Zahard and his elk.

They formed their own resistance group to go against the Zahard Empire and thus, eventually, opening the curtains to a great civil war.