Formless Ascension: My Affinity Is Limitless

"Well..." Uhtred grimaced slightly.

He watched as Handler Roy walked stiffly over to a side cabinet, pulled out a bottle of dark, expensive-looking wine, and grabbed a glass... Then on second thought, he discarded the glass entirely, pulled the cork with his teeth, and began chugging straight from the bottle.

Zara’s eyes went wide like saucers. She turned her head stiffly to Uhtred and asked again, word-for-word this time:

"What. Did. You. Do. Uhtred?"

"...Nothing much, really," Uhtred drawled, giving a slight shrug. "I just told the entire multiversal audience to go fuck themselves."

"...Huh?" Zara blinked, staring at him as if he had spoken in an unknown tongue.

Uhtred opened his mouth to repeat himself, but Zara cut him off sharply.

"I heard you the first time! What the fuck, Uhtred?!"

Even Zara, who pridefully maintained her composure in every crisis, looked at Uhtred as though he had completely lost his mind.

Handler Roy had repeatedly told them that the audience were like kings in this Tower trial. They could make it a smooth sailing or make it a literal hell for any ascender depending on how they felt.

The goal was to make yourself seem interesting and investment-worthy. You needed to get in their good graces at every single moment.

Yet Uhtred had done the exact opposite of that. He had antagonized every single one of them.

"You could have handled it with a bit of diplomacy," Handler Roy finally spoke, his tone hollow, as if all the life had been drained from his body. He set the wine bottle down on the counter with a loud thud.

He turned to face Uhtred. "If you didn’t want to reveal your class, you could have declined politely..."

Uhtred let out a dry snort.

"Who are you kidding, Roy? We both know that any answer short of revealing my class would have ended with the same result. Whether I declined politely or told them off doesn’t change their entitlement," he shrugged. "In that case, why bother bowing to them?"

He stepped toward the Handler, his expression firm and uncompromising.

"You don’t need to stress over it, Roy. I know exactly what I’m walking into. Just send us back into the scenario world so we can finish this floor."

As Handler Roy processed his words, Uhtred turned to Zara, who was watching them with a thoughtful look. She seemed to be piecing together the full context of what had transpired based on their exchange.

"Where did you land in the scenario world again?" Uhtred asked.

This time, Zara answered without hesitation:

"The Namgung Family territory in the West," she said. "What about you?"

"I’m heading toward the Demonic Cult regions in the South. I’m currently being pursued by the An Clan forces—"

"Don’t go there, Uhtred," Zara interrupted, shaking her head firmly. "That entire region is crawling with vicious Nascent Realm powerhouses. The trade reports reaching the Namgung Family from the southern borders are filled with nothing but horrific massacres."

Uhtred raised an eyebrow, a faint smirk returning to his face. "You speak as if you don’t know me, Zara. So what if they’re the most evil cultivators alive? I’m not afraid to match them blow for blow."

Of course, he knew that for Zara to speak about it, the Demonic cult territory must truly be rife with evil. But it wasn’t like he had a choice. His destination was already South-bound. To change it would mean heading through the An clan lands again, followed by the territories of the Righteous Sword Sect and the Fist Sect — both of which were allied with the An Clan.

The South was the best bet. From there, he could figure out what to do and where to go next.

"I was going to ask you to head South to group up," Uhtred added. "But given the situation, stay where you are for now. I will come find you myself when I’ve settled my matters..."

He paused, his tone turning serious.

"...And if for whatever reason I cannot make it, then just keep an ear out."

"An ear out for what?" Zara asked, her eyes narrowing.

Uhtred cracked a smile.

"Oh, you’ll know when you hear about it."

He turned back to Handler Roy, who seemed to have regained most of his composure. The confidence in Uhtred’s voice as he laid out his plan helped ease the Handler’s visible panic.

"Roy," Uhtred said, placing a firm hand on the rat-man’s shoulder. His eyes were clear and unwavering. "Don’t worry. I have this under control."

Handler Roy clenched his jaw, battling with his internal doubts for a moment before letting out a long, defeated sigh.

"Alright, you two. Prepare for return."

He began waving his hands in a fluid gesture, and light began to shimmer below both Uhtred and Zara’s feets.

Uhtred looked at Zara one last time as the spatial energy built up around them.

"Don’t forget what I mentioned earlier. Keep your eyes open for anything anomalous — fortuitous encounters or hidden clues regarding the true objective of this floor’s scenario... We each landed where we did for a reason..."

Zara gave a firm nod just as the light enveloped her.

Right before the spatial transfer completed, however, she blurted out a question that caught Uhtred completely off guard:

"By the way... what happened to your left eye? That definitely wasn’t like that before you walked out to the stage..."

"Huh?" Uhtred froze.

He suddenly realized that his left eye was open and functioning normally. He just hadn’t given it a second thought during the chaotic exchange with the audience and Handler Roy.

More importantly, his new Gnostic Eye was no longer causing him agonizing pain, nor was it involuntarily projecting glowing lines over everything in his vision.

Wait... how can she tell my left eye is different? Is there something visible on the outside?

Uhtred raised his hand to touch his face, but before his fingers could reach his eye, Handler Roy’s return spell fully activated.

His vision dissolved, and both his and Zara’s bodies stretched into beams of light that shot out of the Tower and back toward the scenario world.

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