Tower of Heaven

As he went deeper, the natural dirtiness of the world became more prominent. Everything was covered in dust and cobwebs. The surrounding foundation was made out of wood rather than any other stronger material, and even that wood seemed to be rotting.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

The entrance corridor to the underground area was only tall enough that Atlas had to slightly bend over to walk. After ten or so meters, it widened and expanded.

There was a slope that led into a large open area. From that area, eight separate tunnels led to seven separate locations.

'There are eight of us in this trial as well…'

[Intrinsic Foresight]

As the world was laid bare in front of him, he could see the footsteps leading into seven of the eight paths.

Was it due to fate, or did the realm lead them this way? None of the Ascenders who entered the tomb went into the same tunnel as another.

Atlas shook his head.

'I guess I will take the last path.'

He went down the slope and into the tunnel. The ominous atmosphere was sure to be enough to spook someone else, but he was unfazed.

This kind of environment wasn't terrifying to him. The cobwebs, the darkness, the strange sounds that emanated from the walls; all of it essentially went into one of his ears and came out of the other.

When it came to terrifying things, in his opinion, the supernatural was not one of them. The "supernatural" was never a matter unrelated to worldly things. They seemed ethereal, but all of those things like vengeful spirits and wandering souls, jiangshi, ghouls, and everything along those lines, truly conformed to the ways of Heaven.

They were never unexplained or mysterious. They were merely the apostles of the "unknown" in the eyes of those who faced them.

In the Eyes of One, however, nothing was unknown.

To say that Atlas couldn't be scared was naturally a lie. He was human just like everyone else, even if he did have his own advantages.

However, the things that could breed fear in his heart could not be reproduced unnaturally. They could only be experienced in the world as one adventured and grew.

Nevertheless, Atlas followed the tunnel as far as it went. He encountered a few small beasts and creatures, but they only ran from him when they saw him.

He wondered if it could even be called a tomb if there weren't traps or guardians, but he didn't complain about having an easy time. For the next half hour, all he did was walk, indulging in his own thoughts.

What he didn't know was that he'd gotten lucky. To say that there were no traps or guardians was entirely wrong.

In six of the other seven tunnels, those very things were present and being faced by the Ascenders who chose those paths. Atlas was one of only two people who didn't have to deal with any troubles on his way to the room at the end of the tunnel.

When he arrived there, he still didn't see any people, but he did see treasure. Mounds of it, in fact.

The room that opened up when the tunnel ended was filled to the brim with mounds of gold. It was to the point where Atlas almost believed he had returned to Kallos' tomb.

Atlas furrowed his brows and walked through the piles of coins.

'This has to be at least several tens of millions of gold. To leave it here unguarded, accessible if one merely walks for an hour or so…'

Atlas didn't believe that such easy gains existed in the world.

He reached the other side of the room quite easily, entering the corridor that continued there. Before leaving, he turned around and glanced at the gold one more time. It was untouched and in the exact condition it was in when he entered the room. Even when he stepped, he didn't disturb their rest in the slightest.

With a curious look in his eyes, he flicked a small rock from the ground into the gold. It hit one of the piles and disrupted it, causing a miniature landslide of coins.

VOOM!

The moment there was a change in the gold, the entire floor gave out. A large mouth sprang up from the ground and snapped shut, devouring the room, gold and all.

'It isn't alive.'

Atlas' eyes narrowed into points as he tracked its movements. Rather than being a living being, it was better to call it a mechanism designed by the tomb's creators to imitate a living being.

'And it originates from…'

He did give a glance at the path that the tomb wanted him to follow, but he figured he would find better results if he went the unconventional route. As he had to make the decision in an instant, it was already clear what he was going to choose.

He could see the floor returning to its rightful place as the creature descended back underground. The walls opened and new piles of gold poured out to replace the old ones. Just before the entire scene returned to normal, Atlas made his body as small as possible and dove into the crack where the creature was.

Bang!

Hearing the sound of the floor closing behind him, Atlas fell through the air. He saw the massive maw of that "creature," but there weren't any other distinct features on its face or body. It was a mass of black and green with nondescript circles on the sides of its face meant to look like eyes.

They fell more than fifty meters before Atlas started to feel concerned. With a frown on his face, he summoned the earth qi in his body and increased his weight by severalfold. He suddenly started to fall faster until he'd landed on the "creature." Of course, it did not show any kind of response.

They descended and descended. Atlas kept count of every meter they crossed, and when the number reached three hundred meters, the descent started to slow. For the next one hundred meters, the creature slowly lost speed, and when it reached the end of its trip to the bottom, it neatly packed itself against the ground, leaving only Atlas standing there.

He looked up into the darkness with a strange expression.

'That took quite a while.'

The mechanism went this far down? For what reason?

'In order for it to work properly, it has to sense when people enter the room and move directly below it to wait until it senses the trigger. What is the point of the extraneous action of going all the way up and all the way back down again?'

In order to answer that question, Atlas looked to the machinery in his surroundings.

There were several corridors going in several directions. All of them were running qi channels and other such things that connected one artifact to another to create a huge web of influence.

'These function too well to be old.'

Their machinery was also very new. None of the qi channels or pathways showed any signs of wear.

'Hmm…then, the mechanism comes here because the entire web is centered at this level. In that case…'

If they wanted to make the entire system connected, then they also likely wanted to make the entire system accessible if it needed repair or maintenance.

Atlas nodded to himself with some satisfaction in his movements.

'It looks like I avoided all of the troublesome things and made it to the most important part from the start.'

With such thoughts in mind, he followed the qi channels to find where they led.

There wasn't a doubt in his mind that he would outdo everyone else who thought they could compete with him.