Tower of Trials

## History

The Tower of Trials. A place commonly referred to as an abyss by outsiders. Those who passed the first floor would be able to gain their abilities and become “Magical Awakeners.” Of course, it was just the first step, but that performance was also equivalent to the Magical Awakener’s level of awakening. If so, how could one enter the Tower of Trials?

No precise requirements were stated yet. And that was the same for Su-hyeun when he was still Sung-in who lived in the future. It was such that one would know when the moment arrived. For Su-hyeun, the moment he opened his eyes in this life, he realized the method of entering the Tower of Trials. No, more accurately, it seemed as though he remembered the way to enter it.

#### The truth about the tower of Trials

Everything just appeared without any warning one day.

Dungeons, awakeners, and the tower that bestowed them with abilities.

No, hold on—honestly, no one knew if it was indeed a “tower” or not. It was merely named the “Tower of Trials,” and the individual worlds were classified as “floors,” but other than that, no one so far had claimed to have seen the actual tower from the outside.

Just how did all these things appear? How were the trials given, and just what kind of existence were these administrators?

Nothing about them was known at this stage.

There’s a limit to the amount of info I can get about truth Maybe one or two pieces of information at most, but even then, the administrator wouldn’t be able to answer the questions that got uncomfortably close to the truth of the matter.

!!!

The dungeons, the Tower, and the accompanying system—to awakeners, those three things served as chains that tightly bound them together. The sudden appearance of dungeons and the Tower of Trials and then the appearance of the awakeners who became stronger through the system’s powers all happened so close to one another that it might very well be called “simultaneous.”

##### Truth personnes and trial with 10 Level

Everything (personnes) from the 10th floor up, it was all real. The 43rd floor was the sole exception, though.”

The trial on the 43rd floor was specially cooked up by the administrator of that floor.

Everything except that floor was all real. Kim Su-hyeun the only exception Also, if his trials were the exception, then in what manner did other awakeners’ trials proceed?

### Truth Tower of Trials

“Yes, you were right,” Subhuti started nodding and began his reply. “The Tower you’ve been climbing all this time is indeed Yggdrasil.”

The thing Su-hyeun had been curious about for a very long time wasn’t the system but the true identity of the Tower itself..

He had been thinking about this for a while.

If the system was created by the Five Godly Sages, including Master Subhuti, then what was the Tower of Trials?

“There are countless worlds in the Tower,” Su-hyeun thought.

In a nutshell, the Tower was practically an infinite number of worlds.

Different worlds existed on each of its floors, and through the trials given out from each of these worlds, an awakener would get to travel to another—a new world.

The structure of the Tower was this: you received trials through the system, and after clearing it, you were transferred to the next world.

Basically, awakeners grew stronger through the “Tower” and the “system.” And this was to counter the dungeon threat created by Shiva—kind of like a “vaccine” meant to fight against the virus affecting the universe.

“Yggdrasil…”

And now, Su-hyeun finally learned what the Tower actually was straight from Master Subhuti himself.

He had heard that name before, of course. It was probably the best-known example of a World Tree that usually appeared in the Northern European mythologies.

It was also known as a Tree that “connected different worlds,” and that was similar in meaning to the Tower of Trials that bound many different worlds to one entity and divided them into floors.

Su-hyeun asked, “Just what exactly is Yggdrasil?”

“It’s the largest World Tree—a passageway that connects many different dimensions, which also happens to be a gigantic world itself that occupies half of all known universe and dimensions.”

“And you created the Tower using such a tree?”

“Technically, we can’t say we created it. We merely overlaid our system on Yggdrasil that already existed, after all. We simply utilized a tiny little portion of the countless worlds out there, that’s all.”

It was not a created world but one that already existed. What they had done was simply weaving and tying together the worlds that already existed as floors in the form of the World Tree.

“Well, if we wanted to create it, then there wasn’t much stopping us back then, but still.”

Su-hyeun was surprised by what Subhuti said seemingly in passing, “Wait, something like that was even possible?”

The Godhood of Creation was an ability on another realm compared to every other godhood out there. That was, without a shred of doubt, the power of the biblical God Su-hyeun was familiar with.

Even after becoming a god himself, and not just any god but someone fairly close to the Five Godly Sages in terms of strength, Su-hyeun still didn’t even dare to entertain any thoughts regarding the act of creation.

“Of course, it’s impossible for me. However, I do know of an existence capable of doing it.”

“Who is it?”

“Brahma, one of the Five Godly Sages and also a Primordial God.”

### Conversation between Buddha and Kim Su-hyeun

“Indeed, it is,” Buddha replied while extending his hand. After placing his hand on Su-hyeun’s head, he said, “Don’t move from the spot, young man.”
Su-hyeun was about to avoid that hand reflexively, but Buddha’s firm voice stopped him.

If he wanted to, he could’ve easily shaken off Buddha’s hand, but he chose not to remove the hand forcibly grabbing onto his head.

That was because of all the new information entering his mind through the hand right now.

“Is this… the system?” Su-hyeun thought.

This information was like countless complicated mathematical formulas or like staring at the origin of magic itself.

However, this was no mere magic. However, that didn’t mean it was Master Subhuti’s Sage Arts, Taoist art, or even sorcery.

This wave of information and formulas was simply unknown to him.

Su-hyeun accepted the new info without hesitation. His eyes slowly closed, and Buddha’s voice entered his consciousness.

“The foundation of the system is Yggdrasil. You already know it as the Tower.”

“The Tower of Trials,” he responded inwardly.

“That’s good. Don’t try to speak and simply think while listening to me. The Tower consists of many countless floors. Each of the floors is actually many worlds within Yggdrasil. What Subhuti did was to connect these disparate floors as one structure to create the Tower. He then created the ‘system’ to be inserted in the souls existing within the Tower.”

“Okay. What should I do, then?”

“That’s what I’m about to show you. Well, Subhuti has already finished building the Tower, so there’s no need to worry about that one. Meaning, the issue is with fixing the system that Subhuti had been managing…”

Shu-rururu…

Su-hyeun felt a strange sensation like his body was getting sucked into the ground.

That weirdly sticky feeling caused his eyes to shoot open again. The feeling of getting sucked under vanished instantly, and the only thing he could see was Buddha and his hand still placed on his head.

“Keep your eyes closed, young man.”

“…”

Su-hyeun closed his eyes again.

The same sinking feeling washed over him once more. It felt threatening, like he would get sucked into a void and never be able to get out or something like that.

But he endured it.

Soon, the feeling of being sucked in took over pretty much every part of his body except his head, and then…

Fwhooosh—!

Su-hyeun’s body that was gradually sinking lower suddenly began floating up.

* \* \*

This place was really mystifying. He could see the roots and a trunk of an absolutely massive tree in the distance.

That was Yggdrasil.

Countless smaller World Trees surrounded Yggdrasil to form the universe itself, the one where Su-hyeun called his home.

“That’s… beautiful.”

That was the only thought that popped up in his head.

But what was he supposed to do in this space now that he was here?

Just as he began wondering about that, innumerable images suddenly floated all around Su-hyeun.

“Is that… mom?”

One of the images displayed both of his mothers from his memories—Kim Sung-in’s mother and Shin Su-yeong.

Kim Sung-in’s mother was a professor at a university. She was sitting by her desk, seemingly absorbed in her research. Meanwhile, Shin Su-yeong looked really occupied trying to run her store.

However, those two weren’t the only familiar faces he saw.

“My brothers?”

He then saw the figures of the Bull Demon King and Sun Wukong. Next to appear were Lee Ju-ho, Hak-joon, and then even Thomas.

Even Roy, the boy who almost lost his body to the Lich King, showed up. He then saw the young crown prince and the lady from the fallen noble house. They were the people he met in passing during the past trials.

The scenes from all sorts of worlds were now being shown to him.

“What is that you want to tell me?”

Su-hyeun looked at Yggdrasil and the other World Trees.

They were the building blocks of this universe. Each tree was one gigantic world to themselves and the cornerstones of the universe itself.

And it was the trees showing Su-hyeun all these various scenes right now.

He began paying much closer attention to their voices. Then, he kept his eyes wide open to observe the worlds they chose to show him carefully.

So, so many worlds were dying as he watched.

“You want to live on?”

Su-hyeun’s question caused the images to become blurrier for a moment.

That brief response was enough to deliver their intentions clearly.

What they wanted was crystal clear. These worlds, these trees facing destruction triggered by Shiva, wished to be saved.

That was what he was trying to do, anyway. He definitely wanted to help them somehow.

“But how am I supposed to—?”

Before his thoughts could finish, however, his hand reached out first. A system window resembling a computer monitor popped up before his eyes next.

So, so many numbers were tangled up messily on the screen.

This wasn’t the system granted to Su-hyeun but the one currently malfunctioning due to Master Subhuti’s passing.

However, he knew what was wrong the moment he saw this screen.

“Connections between the worlds and interfering with the worlds and the souls living in them…”

The energy source to activate the system wasn’t some other strange thing but Yggdrasil and the other World Trees.

They granted the necessary energy, and the system operated with their energy as the fuel source.

“Fuu-woo…” Su-hyeun sucked in a deep breath.

He was nervous.

He had never done anything like this before. That was why he wasn’t sure whether he would make a mistake or not.

Thankfully, though, he felt like he knew what to do here.

“I already know what to do about the energy source, so the next hurdle is connecting various worlds found within the Worlds Trees, then also reconnecting the chains existing between World Trees and the souls of people living inside.”

Su-hyeun’s eyes were already darting here and there on the screen, his mind razor-focused on the system’s restoration.

“Separate the personalities, latent abilities, and willpower of people about to receive the system. As for the method of granting the system and the timing for the connection…”

His eyes darted around even faster.

He continued to manipulate the broken system by adding or removing various components.

The images spreading out before his eyes began to overlap one at a time gradually.

Countless many worlds had come closer to whisper to him, begging him to save them, too.

Master Subhuti and his fellow Five Godly Sages used the system to awaken the latent potential of the worlds so that they could stand up against Shiva’s scheme.

And now…

“Issue trials through various administrators. As for the trials found from the first floor all the way to 100, keep the same difficulty levels as before, but the contents should be randomized. Use advanced level illusions to…”

Su-hyeun began his rapid repairing of the system.

He turned out to be so much faster than even Buddha’s prediction—so fast and smooth that even Su-hyeun himself would’ve been shocked..
## Dungeon

A dungeon is a type of system set by the Predators to devour a world much more easily. They use dungeons to lead many different worlds to their doom and then appear at the last moment to prey on those dying worlds.

ounds like they are a viral infection.”

Dungeons that increase in numbers in this fashion operate to achieve the ultimate goal, that is, to satisfy the desire of the existence responsible for creating this dungeon system in the first place.

“The existence responsible for creating the dungeon system?”

“Yes. The one who detests the universe, and as such, his ultimate aim is to destroy the universe. One of the Three Destroyers, Shiva.

They are a threat. Individually, they may not amount to much, but their overall numbers are rapidly approaching that threat level even as we speak. At this rate, it won’t be long before dungeons completely overtake the entire universe.

## Administrators

The gatekeepers. They were inhabitants of every 10th-floor who received points and provided hints about the trials to people. There were countless rumors about their identities.

Some said they might be monsters, not humans, and some said they might be transcendental beings related to the Tower of Trials. Some said the gatekeepers were probably the same as other inhabitants but beggars, just begging for points.

There was no clear explanation for their existence, but Su-hyeun thought they were important. Although they dressed like humble beggars, no, even more, because of that, Su-hyeun was sure that they kept big secrets, not like other inhabitants of the tower.

The one who supervised the trials, the administrator. It was the perfect name. It was a much better name than ‘gatekeepers,’ so named because they were the ones that people met before they entered the trials.

Administrators supervising the individual floors all had their own personalities. They might have shared their opinions and agreed on things while working within a larger framework, but some of them also definitely held differing opinions from the rest.

The administrator, although he wasn’t human.

Information regarding the administrators is a secret, and maybe it’ll cause some kind of a problem if they were leaked.

All the administrators behaved similarly until now.

While interacting with Su-hyeun, they never brought up any detailed information. As for the administrators of the 43rd and 100th floors, they must’ve been the special cases because they revealed little bits of information to him.

However, they still didn’t tell him their names. Maybe they thought mentioning their names didn’t have much of a point under the circumstances.

Phaethon seemed different from the administrators of the 43rd or the 100th floors.

Administrators all Apostles.

## System

* The Tower’s system did not deem humans’ lives to be that important. There were usually missions to kill, but missions to save were rare. To Su-hyeun’s knowledge, there wasn’t any mission that stops one from killing the enemy just to let them realize how precious life was.
* The explanations of the trials themselves would become more unfriendly the higher one climbed the floors and the higher the trial’s difficulty was set at. And from a certain point on, there would be several occasions where the trial didn’t even bother to tell you about the end goal.

Indeed, the system here felt vaguely like a game.

Like a meticulously built artificial intelligence, it understood every intention and gave the right replies.

It was a very convenient point.

* The Tower of Trials gave different trials to everyone, even when people chose the same level of difficulty on the same floor.

### The system’s role as far as Su-hyeun knew was to do two things.

First, to act as an assistant to make the process of learning skills simpler and easier, and second, to act as a convenient interface to neatly organize all the abilities he currently possessed when he wanted to see them.

### Level

[As the level goes up, the level of difficulty increases, and the reward for clearing each level gets better.]

The trials were divided into a total of 10 levels. The most manageable level started at Level 1, and the difficulty would have reached its highest point at level 10.

It was a tough question. There was no right answer, and since there was no wrong answer, it was even tougher — to choose level 1 and clear the level with perfection, or to choose a higher level and scrape through the level.

The trials did not start easy. But…. It’s not enough with just this.

**There was no end to the Tower of Trials. No one knew how many floors existed within this colossal tower.** That was how it was known as being endless. But going up the higher floors did not mean that one was deemed to be stronger. There were cases where some Magical Awakeners who only cleared a few levels were stronger than those who completed dozens of levels. That was the difference when clearing levels and the levels of difficulty for the Tower of Trials.

**High risks, high returns.**

## Flower

According to the 43rd floor’s administrator, the trials found on each of the floors depended on the individual administrator in charge.

This meant that the type of trials could be changed based on the whims of the administrators involved, just like the 43rd floor’s trial took place in a made-up world created by the administrator.

### First Floor

[Level 10 of the Tower of Trials’ First Floor will start.] =The background of the trials was the Colosseum.

The Colosseum was empty, but the cries of the monsters could be heard from somewhere.

What great sound effects.

Starting from the first floor, the background looked great.

One floor, ten levels — he knew about its theme.

Though the trials vary from the second floor onwards, the first level’s trial was determined by its difficulty.

There was almost no one who cleared the first level trials.

the first floor’s level 10 was only a trial testing on one’s physical abilities, and not related in any way to the magic power.

**From the 40th floor onwards, you can re-select the difficulty again. Even if you choose the tenth level… You can still choose to make it easy, tough, or hellish for yourself.**

### 100 Flower

* Everyone says it’s the mother of all hurdles out there

The world on the 100th floor, as Su-hyeun knew it, was a mysterious island that hadn’t see a drop of rain throughout the year, yet crops still grew strong and healthy there. Its skies were always clear.

Therefore, this would be Su-hyeun’s first time seeing this place with no clear skies, topped off with continuous and persistent drizzle.

The 100th floor’s world held incredible significance for many people.

In this world, which was referred to as the mother of all hurdles, half of the “people” here chose to give up climbing the tower any further and simply traveled around this peaceful place for a long time.

As for the other half, they were being cautious while gathering as much information as possible in the hopes of challenging the 100th floor.

#### Secret 100st Flower

the 100th floor’s trial a sort of doorway…a hurdle, More accurately, it’s the 10th level of difficulty of the trial.

Now that was one absurd requirement—the 100th floor and its trial set at the 10th level of difficulty.

For someone who had experienced and passed that trial, Su-hyeun found the level of difficulty absurd. If an aspirant was able to climb all the way to the 100th floor, then it would be that person’s prerogative on how to manage the trial. However, a sane individual would find it impossible to clear that level nonetheless.

The only one who stood a chance of successfully clearing this trial had to choose and clear the 10th level of difficulty and reach the 100th floor.

Not only that, even Su-hyeun wouldn’t have passed it if it weren’t for his fortuitous encounters on the 60th floor that included acquiring both the Palm Leaf Fan and the Somersault cloud, as well as learning about the Sage Arts.

**“This is the real world, while the other one is a replica…In that case, the people…they are Stuck,” the administrator finished the sentence for Su-hyeun and went on, “They are unable to climb any higher.”**

The condition to climb to the 101st floor was to pass the trial set at the 10th level of difficulty on the 100th floor’s world.

Those countless awakeners who failed to meet this requirement but still passed the 100th floor were now stuck in a fake world. They thought they were diligently ascending the floors, but they were all mistaken.

This was no isolated incident. Even the awakeners in Su-hyeun’s previous life, as Kim-Sung-in, also faced this unfortunate event.

“If that’s the case, then what’s the point of dividing the difficulty levels for each trial, especially when you can’t even go any higher?” Su-hyeun asked.

“No, it’s not like you can’t go higher,” the administrator refuted. “It will just take a longer time.”

“Ten requirements exist to reach this ‘next world’. Tenth level of difficulty on the 100th floor, ninth level on the 200th, eighth level on the 300th, and, eventually, first level on the 1,000th. Difficulties are composed of different sections, and all you have to do is to pass those trials,” the administrator explained in detail. Su-hyeun seemed to be absorbing this information and remained silent, so the administrator continued, “Your abilities will invariably improve faster if you choose an advanced difficulty setting on higher floors. Meaning, only the awakeners who have acquired a suitable level of strength to clear the 100th floor or 10th level of difficulty are qualified to step into the ‘real’ next world.

In Su-hyeun’s previous life as Kim Sung-in, he cleared trials set at the eighth level of difficulty and eventually reached the 294th floor. However, he failed to see the real next world; he was six floors short.

after next world (101st Flower) No hints from now on.

### The world of the tenth floor.

The trial found in every tenth world held a special meaning to the awakeners climbing the Tower of Trials. The difficulty would shoot up for each of the sections, and people began calling them the hardest parts to clear.

It was the same story for Su-hyeun. No, it was actually far worse for him.

Despite choosing the highest difficulty trials, he was able to pass them without too many issues. Even then, the trials found on every tenth floor were the exceptions.

### The 200th floor

There was nothing to be found on the 200th floor.

This place was pitch-black. Since it was so dark here with not even a trace of faint light, to Su-hyeun, it felt like he had fallen into outer space without any stars to guide him.

He found himself standing all alone in such a space. Despite there being no light, he could still take a look around through Insight and could also sense what was around him.

There were no ground, mountains, and rivers, but what shocked him the most was the fact that there was no sky above as well.

Even if a world was destroyed, a blackened sky that had lost all of its colors should still exist above, but in this place, the boundary separating the sky and the ground was gone, making it appear as if he was floating in empty space.

“The ground where life form can grow, the air one needs to breathe, and the sky that should emit at least some light…”

None of those existed here, but that didn’t mean this place began as a complete nothingness, either.

The tainted but faint dregs of magical energy that he could still detect told him that there used to be something existing in this space.

No longer existing. Originally, this place here was a truly wonderful world to live in. There were no wars, no famines, droughts, nothing. You wouldn’t have found another realm as great to live in as this one.

## Store

1. At the store, one could use their achievement points to purchase various weapons, shields, armor, and other equipment.
2. can access a new point store from the 100th floor onward. You can take a look later or something.
	* The types and effects of the items found in the new store that only appeared after the 100th floor should be far better than the ones found on the lower floors.

## Rulers

In the Tower of Trials, there were some rules to adhere to get stronger.

* —Choose the higher levels.
* —Clear the higher floors.
* —Give a better performance.

## Trivia

* Su-hyeun had chosen Level 8 in his past life. It was quite difficult, and as tough as it was, the bounty was quite rewarding.
* Indeed, the system here felt vaguely like a game. Like a meticulously built artificial intelligence, it understood every intention and gave the right replies. It was a very convenient point.
* At the store, one could use their achievement points to purchase various weapons, shields, armor, and other equipment.
* From the 40th floor onwards, you can re-select the difficulty again. Even if you choose the tenth level… You can still choose to make it **easy**, **tough**, or **hellish** for yourself.
* Kim Su-hyeun is the very first person to pass all the tests we have prepared and set foot in this world.
* after 100 Flower and 10 level No hints from now on.
* System Created By Zeus and the Five Godly Sages.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Chapter 3
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Chapter 289
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Chapter 442
4. ↑ Chapter 472
5. ↑ Chapter 188
6. ↑ Chapter 302
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Chapter 313
8. ↑ Chapter 414
9. ↑ Chapter 37
10. ↑ Chapter 290
11. ↑ Chapter 163
12. ↑ Chapter 252
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Chapter 4
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Chapter 5
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Chapter 158
16. ↑ Chapter 303
17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Chapter 309
18. ↑ Chapter 213
19. ↑ Chapter 418