Awakener's Guide to Climbing the Tower

Once the Floor Quest ended, Genesis grew quiet, not peaceful.

Peace belonged to streets where merchants argued over stall prices and children ran between pedestrians without anyone checking the sky. What settled over Genesis after the siege was the silence of people too exhausted.

The remaining monsters fled beyond the city’s boundaries. Rankers who had spent the invasion waiting near the portal suddenly found enough courage to join the search parties. They combed through ruined homes, overturned wagons, and streets buried beneath broken stone. Some called out for survivors, others collected bodies and laid them in rows beneath whatever cloth could be found.

The healers filled nearby buildings until the pews, hallways, and even the stone steps outside were occupied by the wounded. Those who could still stand carried water, bandages, potions, or people.

For two days, smoke hung over the eastern district.

The wall Tobias raised remained standing. No one could lower it.

Earth-aligned Awakeners tried, but the stone refused their mana as though it still recognized only the hand that had created it.

By the time cracks finally spread far enough for workers to begin clearing a passage, Kylo had already disappeared.

Misha never saw him leave. One of the guards claimed he had gone east with the first recovery group, another insisted he had climbed over the unstable ruins alone before dawn, and someone else said they had seen him sitting near Tobias’ destroyed stall with his bow across his knees. None of them knew for certain.

Misha told herself Kylo could probably take care of himself. He would probably insult her for worrying.

The thought did not help.

Elyes and Sebastian returned to the Faust residence once the roads became passable.

The Genesis residence stood in the inner district, far enough from the ruined wall to survive the siege.

She stayed at the place since Sebastian insisted she needed treatment, and because Elyes had already informed the household that he was her guest before she found the opportunity to object.

He had agreed on being her sponsor, fed her, and provided her with a room large enough to fit the inn she was staying at before.

Misha knew why he was being this generous. She should probably thank Nyxie for that.

Still, she had nowhere else to go.

Returning to the outer district where the inn was located meant seeing the ruins Tobias had died protecting. And going back to his stall–

She could not do that yet.

So she stayed.

===

Days passed.

Her strength gradually returned. Fresh clothes appeared outside her room every morning, along with meals large enough for three people. She ate because the healers watched her, and she slept because her body eventually forced her to.

She did not climb. She did not return to check Tobias’ stall, and she did not open the Soul Status of the newest constellation in her Soul Inventory.

On the fifth night, Misha finally stopped pretending she could avoid it.

Rain tapped gently against the guest room’s windows. A small lamp burned on the bedside table, filling the room with pale gold light. The bed beneath her was so soft she kept sinking into it whenever she shifted, as if the mattress were slowly trying to swallow her whole.

Misha sat against the headboard with the blanket gathered loosely over her legs.

"Show me the Soul Status of the Cancer Chamber."

The air in front of her shimmered and a blue window unfolded in silence.

「 〔SOUL STATUS〕

"Mountain Walker"

Name: Tobias Stormcrow

Rank: ☆☆☆

Race: Human

Class: Earth Warden

Constellation Chamber: Cancer

Potential Growth: ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

—

<APTITUDE>

Combat ..... 91 (SS-)

Support .... 83 (S-)

Leadership ... 90 (SS-)

Adaptability .... 68 (A-)

Mental Strength .... 95 (SS+)

—

<UNIQUE SKILL>

Heart of the Earth

Effect:

The user merges with a colossal Earth Golem as its living core. The golem’s size, durability, and power scale with the user’s mana.

While inside the Earth Golem:

• Damage received is significantly reduced.

• Physical attacks create localized tremors.

• The Golem slowly regenerates while standing on natural terrain.

The transformation ends when the Earth Golem is destroyed or voluntarily dismissed.

–

Terra Genesis

Effect:

Manipulates the surrounding earth to create colossal hands, walls, pillars, and other stone structures.

The larger the surrounding terrain, the stronger and more durable the constructs become.

—

Possession Duration: 15 Minutes

Cooldown: 35 Hours 」

Misha stared at the name.

Tobias Stormcrow.

It was really him.

She had known from the moment King’s silence had already told her what the System had not yet shown her.

Still, seeing his name made the last fragile part of her denial collapse.

Her hand rose toward the window, her fingers passed through the blue light.

No rough palm came down on her head, and no gravelly voice complained about young people wasting an old man’s time. Only a status window remained.

A person reduced to numbers again.

This time, the numbers were impressive.

"You lied," she whispered.

King lay on one of the pillows beside her, small enough to resemble an ordinary young black cat. He had spent the last few minutes licking one paw with an insulting amount of concentration.

One golden eye opened. [About what nya? I lied about many things. You’ll have to be specific.]

"You said nothing."

[That is not the same as lying nya.]

"You knew it was him."

King returned to cleaning his paw. [I suspected.]

Misha’s brow twitched. She wanted to throw the pillow at him. Unfortunately, he was lying on the best one.

Her gaze returned to the Soul Status.

He was just a 3-star...

She had expected more. Although it was not because 3-star were weak. Nyxie and Gerbaut had both been 3-star, and Misha had seen what they could do.

But Tobias had stood alone against a Goblin King. He had lifted streets, created walls large enough to split Genesis in half, and worn an earth golem like the body of a mountain.

The name Mountain Walker belonged in history books yet only three stars floated beside it. There was no hidden legendary rank waiting to reveal itself after death.

"Grandpa Tobias was really only a 3-star?" She asked.

King’s tongue stopped against his paw.

[Only?]

Misha glanced at him. "You know what I mean."

[I do. I am choosing to be offended on his behalf nya nya.]

"He fought the Goblin King alone."

[Rank does not decide every battle.]

King lowered his paw and looked at the Soul Status window.

[Stars represent the quality of an Awakener’s foundation nya. They represent the rarity of their class, the initial strength of its abilities, and the growth range the Tower expects from the person who receives them.]

"Then how did a 3-star reach the 98th floor?"

[By climbing nyauh.]

Misha gave him a flat look. "Thank you. That is very informative."

King’s tail flicked against the pillow. [You asked how. That is how nya.]

"You’re deliberately being difficult."

[I am naturally difficult. Deliberation is unnecessary nya nya.]

Misha reached for the edge of his pillow.

King placed one paw firmly over it as if he could already tell what she was planning to do.

She let go with a sigh. It was not worth it.

[As I was saying, stars do not measure experience, discipline, or what someone is willing to endure.]

Misha’s gaze drifted toward the two skills listed beneath Tobias’ aptitudes. Heart of the Earth and Terra Genesis.

[Mountain Walker spent decades refining his abilities until they became more useful than dozens of poorly mastered skills,] King continued. [He understood pressure, density, fault lines, mana conduction, and the natural memory of stone nya. He knew when to lift the earth and when to let an enemy’s weight break it for him.]

"That sounds less like a skill and more like engineering."

[It was both nya.] King shifted, folding his front paws beneath his chest. [He knew every street in Genesis. He knew where the ground was weakest, where the old foundations lay, and how much force the city could withstand before collapsing nya.]

"So Genesis itself made him stronger?"

[He helped build it nya. The city knew his mana almost as well as he knew its earth.]

Misha remembered the road rising beneath his cane, the walls bending to his will, and the enormous stone body wrapping around him as though the ground had recognized its master and welcomed him home.

"He was that strong despite being 3-star..."

[Because he was 3-star, not despite it nya.]

Misha frowned in confusion. "That makes no sense."

[It makes perfect sense. Higher-ranked Awakeners are often praised before they accomplish anything nya. They awaken, receive a higher class, and people immediately begin speaking of everything they might become.]

His ears angled forward. [Tobias had no such luxury. Everything attached to the name Mountain Walker was earned nya nya. So do not mistake a ceiling for a destination. Most people never climb high enough to touch theirs.]

"But the Mountain Walker did."

[Yes, he reached it.] King’s golden eyes narrowed slightly. [Then he kept climbing nya.]

Something tightened inside Misha’s chest. It was not the same pain as before, not entirely. There was grief in it, but there was pride too. A strange aching pride for a man she had known only briefly and understood far too late.

Her gaze drifted toward the seven stars beside Potential Growth.

"Then what is this?" She pointed.

King followed her attention. [His potential within the Soul Inventory. Tobias lived, climbed, and reached the 98th Floor as a 3-star Awakener. That will not be rewritten merely because his soul now possesses another path nya.]

"Then why can his soul reach 7-star?"

King let out a long, suffering sigh. Of course she had more questions. The woman collected them as naturally other people collected coins, and somehow expected him to answer every last one.

Still, he did answer her.

[Because death removed the damaged vessel that had been restricting him nya nya. His body had been failing for years. He could still summon the strength he once possessed, but his body could no longer survive carrying it so inside your Soul Inventory, his growth is no longer limited by ruined flesh. Your skill preserves his experience and allows his soul to evolve beyond the rank he possessed while alive nya.]

Misha looked at Tobias’ name. He was a man who had reached the 98th Floor beside people with greater potential than him and made sure history remembered his name just as clearly as theirs. He had become powerful because he spent decades refusing to remain ordinary.

Misha should have found that inspiring. Instead, her thoughts went to Kylo calling for his father who would never answer again. She knew what it meant to lose a parent.

Her eyes burned. She blinked until the feeling retreated.

King watched her for a while, his expression impossible to read on such a small face.

Then, with all the gentleness of a brick thrown through a window, he spoke. [When do you plan on climbing again nya? You can’t keep shutting yourself away every time someone dies.]

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