Chapter 5 - Floor Test!

Headon stopped his words for a few seconds and a mysterious gleam flashed through his eyes.

"However... The journey to the top is difficult and fraught with danger! Your life will be at constant risk, and at any moment you could lose it. So, children, do you wish to risk yourselves to the top?"

Headon squinted his eyes and watched Uriel and Urek's reactions carefully, waiting for their answers.

"I see... So, as long as I climb to the top of this Tower, I can find Phantaminum?"

Urek crossed his arms, and just then his lips arched and his teeth came into view.

"Hehe! That's really very interesting! Okay, I'm going to climb to the top of this Tower!"

Headon smiled a little and turned to Uriel.

'Risk, heh...' Uriel gave a small inward laugh and gave a simple and direct answer looking at Headon.

"I will also be climbing the Tower."

Risk? He already took several risks in the Abyss, and he wasn't afraid to take one more. Risk of life? There have already been cases where he practically lost his life. Those words were a long way from making him give up climbing the Tower.

'Not bad.'

Urek put on a satisfied smile as he nodded.

'Very well! Since you two have already made up your minds..."

Headon swung the staff in his hand, and a light shone in front of Uriel and Urek. Two black orbs began to materialize from the light and floated in front of Uriel and Urek.

'That is...' Uriel raised an eyebrow, as he quickly recognized this orb.

Urek tilted his head slightly as he looked at the orb. His eyes turned to Headon and a curious expression appeared on his face.

"Hey, rabbit, what's that for?"

Headon waved his hand and explained.

"Take this, it's called Pocket. It is something very necessary if you wish to climb the Tower. In this Tower, there are many different tribes, races, and customs, and of course many different languages. They also have other functions. For now, just touch it and...".

Flash!

Headon twisted his lips. Before he could finish speaking, Urek stepped forward and touched the orb, causing light to radiate from it and begin to wrap around his hand.

"...!"

Urek pulled his hand away in surprise. He hadn't expected his casual movement, to cause something. His gaze turned to Headon.

"Hey, what was that, rabbit?!"

'Rabbit...' If Headon had eyebrows, they would be frowning heavily at that moment.

"Pocket just connected with you, no need to be so scared. Don't you see him? He's quite calm."

With his staff, Headon pointed at Uriel. Uriel was with his usual calm, cool face, with his Pocket floating around him.

"Cough." Urie gave a little cough and giggled. "Haha, who said I was scared? I had already realized that this Pocket only connected with me."

Uriel looked at him out of the corner of his eye but decided to remain silent.

Headon chuckled softly and clapped his hands together.

Clap! Clap!

"Okay, okay, when you wish Pocket to disappear, say, 'Invisible Mode' and if you wish it to appear again, 'Visible Mode'."

Headon instructed them.

Uriel, who already knew about it from the webtoon, softly said ' Invisible Mode', and the Pocket floating in front of him suddenly disappeared. Urek blinked a little surprised by this, but quickly followed suit and made his Pocket disappear.

Soon after, Headon spoke again.

"All right, children, now that you two already know the bare minimum of how to control your Pockets, let's begin the Floor Test."

"Floor Test?" Urek asked.

"Yes, Floor Test. To continue climbing the Tower, on each Floor you must take a test to move to the next Floor. Naturally the higher the Floor, the more difficult the Test."

Headon turned his face back and swung his staff toward a wall.

"So, the 1st Floor Test is...."

Several bars began to appear and formed a sort of cage on the wall of the Floor.

"The ball."

A water-like substance could be seen inside the cage. Huge monsters, with an eel-like physique, were swimming freely in this substance. And behind the giant eels, a black ball was floating.

Uriel looked at the cage intently.

'White Steel Eels and...'

After recognizing what kinds of eels those were, Uriel turned his gaze to the water-like substance.

'Shinsu.'

Shinsu, one of the biggest reasons that made him risk completely emptying his Spiritual Energy and come to this Tower.

"What do I need to do in this test? Destroy that black ball?" As Uriel rambled on, Urek came close to Headon and asked him a question.

"Exactly. All you need to do to pass this test is to destroy the black ball. No matter what means you use to destroy it, as long as you can destroy it, you have passed the Floor Test."

Headon explained patiently and then turned to Uriel.

"So, child, do you wish to begin your test?"

Uriel did not answer Headon immediately, his gaze was locked on the cage. His mind was calculating and pondering his situation.

'It is unlikely that I will pass this test relying on my physical strength alone, I am too weak at this point.'

'My only alternative now is to try to control Shinsu, however, even using Shinsu, it is still very unlikely to pass this test. First, even if I succeed, my control of Shinsu would be mediocre at best. Second, Baam, the protagonist of Tower of God, used a 13 Month Series Needle, one of the most powerful weapons in the Tower, and couldn't kill a White Steel Eel, and I'll be facing eight at once.'

'Perhaps, the Heavenly Lotus...' An idea came to his mind at that moment. However, soon after, he could only be disappointed.

'I am unable to sense my Spiritual Sea, and likewise, I am unable to use the Heavenly Lotus.'

'I don't have any weapons or armor with me either. It's hard to say if I can use my Spiritual Techniques and Arts using Shinsu when I just entered the Tower, after all, Spiritual Energy and Shinsu are two different things...'

He considered several possibilities, yet nothing that could help him came to mind.

'Um... That's a bit of a dangerous situation...'

Despite thinking that, his lips arched into a small smile. He was not afraid. He had been through even worse situations than this. Instead of fear, he was feeling excited. The more difficult the situation, the more fun and rewarding it would be to overcome!

Moreover, it was not because nothing came to his mind to help him that he had no other means. He just did not wish to use those means on the first floor of the Tower.

At the same time, Headon looked at the small smile on Uriel's face and, interpreted that he had agreed.

"Fufu, very well, child, destroy the ball and you may move on to the next Floor."

At Headon's voice, Uriel awoke from his thoughts.

"Mm." He nodded and began to walk toward the cage of the Floor Test.

'There's no point in rambling on at this point. All I can do for now is try, maybe something unexpected will happen. In case it goes wrong, I can use that...'

His gaze was sharp as he stared at the eight eels.

Watching Uriel slowly enter the cage, Urek crossed his arms and looked at Headon.

"Hey, rabbit, do you think he'll pass this test? He looks pretty weak."

Headon heard this and put a small smile on his face. His gaze focused on Uriel's figure. A moment later, he looked at Urek with the corner of his eyes.

'Just like him, that child is a terrible monster. However, unlike him, that child's strength is not in his physical body, but his soul.'

Headon had realized it from the moment he first looked at Uriel. He was a terrible monster. In fact, it would be more correct to say that his soul is a terrible monster. The strength of his soul is enormous for someone who was just beginning to climb the Tower, to say the least...

'At the level of a Ranker. At most at the level of an Advanced-Ranker.'

However...

'He's not at the level of being able to manipulate his soul free and use it to attack. He probably trained his soul as if he were training a physical body, and didn't really train his soul's strength.'

A twinkle flickered in Headon's eyes.

'So he won't be able to rely on his soul strength in this battle. What will he do?'

He turned to Urek who was still waiting for his answer and spoke.

"Let's watch a little more, who knows, maybe he can give us some surprise?"

"Um, okay."

Urek nodded and turned his gaze back to the test site, when...

Boom!

A thunderous noise sounded.

Headon's cyan-colored eyes opened instantly and a frightening smile appeared on his face.

'Keh Keh, that child is really very interesting!'

Urek beside him blinked as if he couldn't believe the scene before him. But, soon a smile appeared on his face as well.

"Hahaha, this guy is quite interesting!"

The two of them couldn't help but feel surprised as they looked at the test site. There was a terrible storm of flames covering the entire site. And in the center of this storm of flames, Uriel was smiling coldly holding a strange, small, scarlet-red lotus in his hand.