Gathering

The remaining candidates who had passed the first four trials settled in a big medieval-ish city on the fifth floor, which was supposed to be the place where the fourth trial took place.

Unlike the gate of the other floors, the fifth was available to revisit as its purpose was as a resting point and a return point in case a candidate wanted to finish their Awakening Phase early.

But by doing that, they could only receive an Inferior to Intermediate rank Trace, which might not help them much to become stronger, and only an idiot chose to give up.

That was how the Awakened Ascender perceived those people. To them, it was better to try to aim for big and fail rather than not try at all. 

If they were trying, who knew, they might get lucky and improve their chance to receive a better Trace. And if they were to fail anyway, they had nothing to lose.

Sorath finished his drink and left the pub after paying the barkeeper for his delicious drink and perfect service.

Standing on the paved road that looked too smooth for a medieval city, he breathed the magic-polluted air, which was good, greedily.

'Again... If only we could occupy the tutorial floors.'

Sorath sighed, feeling somber by the fact that this city wasn't listed on the conquerable floors. Not only that but the resources from the Goblin Labyrinth and Velniz Temple, too, were all wasted!

'Maybe I will do the method used by the Syndicate for next year's Awakening Phase.'

That was a good plan. However, since it had no use for now, Sorath put the thoughts aside and moved out to find a vantage point. 

Luckily, he didn't need to put much effort as the highest structure of this city was a few hundred meters away from his current position.

Arriving at the tower in the center of the city, Sorath stood at the end of the line, queuing to enter the "Obsidian Tower."

The tower seemed to be naturally made without human intervention, as its design and material weren't something even Havenlock and Astarless, the most advanced region ever built by humans in this tower, could handle.

If those two couldn't do it, let alone the people of the fifth floor, who were mostly a native.

'A tower inside another tower...' Sorath, for some reason, chuckled at the thought. 'At least this one didn't force people to play its games.'

After tens of minutes, he could finally climb the Obsidian Tower. Standing on the highest point, he could see the city landscape more clearly.

Although medieval, it had this enchanting effect due to its more advanced technologies and magic-based inventions, creating a whole new picture of the medieval era Sorath knew through the old book, and more like Astarless city on the thirtieth floor.

'Astarless...'

Sorath looked at the sky.

'It's been a long time.'

...

Three days later...

It had been concluded that 488 candidates were passing the solo trial, which was a good number if they wanted to complete all the trials. 

The more they had the manpower, the greater the chance for, at least, Transcendent rank Trace could be grasped.

Sorath had built rapport with other candidates for his own merit these past three days.

Although he couldn't make everyone positively see him, at least he would have some people to support his cause in the ongoing gathering.

The gathering took place on the first floor because it had the largest open space to provide almost 500 people a place to sit or stand.

This time, they need not worry about the sunlight as they had prepared a textile to make a large shelter from the sun. As for the speaker's voice issue, they had a square-shaped microphone manufactured by the fifth-floor people.

Since the microphone was limited in number, only a presentative could have it and do the talking.

The beginning of the gathering was already chaotic since every representative seemed to have a different opinion of how to approach the group trial.

"We deserve a break, at least a week, before proceeding with the group trial. And by break, it's not only to waste time and laze around. But to make a proper preparation," the outskirts boy expressed his opinion.

'That sounds good. However, it wouldn't do us any better if we were to delay the fifth trial any longer than this because...'

Sorath kept his thought to himself and glanced at Julian, expecting him to counter the outskirts boy's opinion, and he did. Julian did the same thing as in the novel.

"No!" Julian yelled.

Julian was given the microphone despite being an outsider because of the Pandora Twin. At first, many were protesting. But after Julian proved himself to be a capable fighter and deserved the right to speak for the other candidates from the outside world, the problem settled immediately.

"We have no time to rest!"

The outskirts boy turned and raised his eyebrow at Julian.

"Can you elaborate?"

Julian cleared his throat and began explaining.

"Our objective would become stronger every day if we don't finish it immediately. If you want to rest, do it after you complete the fifth trial."

At that moment, Sorath frowned. He was sure Julian was saying a longer sentence in the novel, but it didn't happen now. But he couldn't care less about that since it was probably the result of an alternate timeline.

What important was...

Sorath stared at Julian. His face remained calm and neutral. "The objective will get stronger if we don't clear the trial quickly? How do you know about that? Can we even trust your word?"

... to corner him.

Julian turned and looked at Sorath. There was a short silence as they stared at each other.

"... I have an informant," replied Julian shortly.

Sorath tried to hold back a laugh at the reasoning.

"Informant? Even though you're from the outside world, who doesn't have any idea what's going on inside the tower?"

Maintaining his calm, Julian nodded.

"Yes."

With a hidden glint, Sorath asked. "How?"

Julian sighed, shaking his head in disbelief. By this time, he had noticed Sorath wanted to corner him.

Shaking his head, he answered Sorath.

"It seems like you haven't heard the news that you can leave and enter the tower as you like when you reach a certain stage of awakening. If I'm not wrong, it's called the Bloomed stage."

The candidates gasped simultaneously after hearing his words. Suddenly, the gathering filled with murmur and whispers about what Julian had said.

Some believed it to be correct, while some seemed cynical about the outsider's claim.

Grinning at the situation, Julian felt triumphant.

However, even at this time, Sorath didn't lose his composure. He expected Julian to say that. So, he had prepared a counter-argument for that.

Slightly smiling, Sorath only said, "Is that so?"