Awakening: I Ascend Alone

Chapter 43: Moving

"It is popular that once a Climber’s virtual body transmigrates into the Silver Spire, their ultimate goal becomes simple—survive and find a way to escape from the step."

"Most people don’t think beyond that belief. They don’t try to understand anything else. Only in rare cases would a handful of Climbers try to find a way to conquer the step. The majority only wanted to leave."

Aurex let out a small scoff, scratching the back of his neck. "Well, can you blame them? Look around."

Keth ignored him.

"Also, leaving the Silver Spire will obviously be the simplest and most identifiable goal one can wish to achieve. I mean, no one would love to live their entire life fighting abominable creatures all in the name of being affected with flux," Aurex added, regardless of whether Keth listened or not.

"Although it can be the easiest identifiable goal, leaving won’t be as simple as walking away," Melvin suggested calmly. "The more obvious and simple, the more dangerous and difficult achieving it becomes."

"Exactly," Keth snapped her fingers in agreement. "Leaving any step of the Spire requires one to achieve significance, and due to that, there’s usually a kind of test that’s held among the Climbers."

Melvin’s eyes sharpened slightly as he straightened on the rock.

"Significance? Test?" he repeated.

Keth nodded.

"Entering these test zones had different ways it appears for all Climbers, but they required the same ultimate thing," she continued, and after a short pause, with her head lowered, Keth added. "This information is something Climbers generally do not have access to."

Melvin glanced at her immediately after she said those last words. It implied that she was speaking of her own personal knowledge and not something that could have been taught in school. No, it doesn’t seem right. This was her first time entering the Silver Spire, which meant someone must have told her.

Who can it possibly be? From his short stay in the academy, he learned that an older set of Climbers had already ventured into the Spire. In fact, none has returned so far.

Oblivious to Melvin’s thoughts, Keth lifted her head and glanced around the cave.

"Places like this," she said. "Caves. Deep pits. Buried tunnels. Ruins. Even abandoned structures. Overall, the test zones can be found in enclosed spaces."

Her fingers tapped lightly against the stone beneath her.

"Hence, with proper knowledge, if one of these enclosures is found, the Climbers in such an area are all going to be required to pass through a barrier. But opening and passing through the barrier require that a condition should be met."

"And what condition is that?" Aurex asked, though something in his tone suggested he already wasn’t going to like the answer.

Keth looked at him but didn’t ignore him this time. Instead, she said in a plain tone. "No matter where the barrier was found, there must be a living sacrifice to gain entrance."

Silence.

The fire from the fireplace crackled. Shadows stretched along the cave walls, rising and falling like silent watchers of the trio having discussions. After what seemed like a long pause, Aurex broke the silence.

"You’re joking, right?" he asked.

"I’m not."

His expression stiffened. He can basically be addressed as the Senior to both Melvin and Keth. Thus, he was supposed to be the more informed of the two. All the months he had spent at Axiom Academy, how come he never knew of it?

Keth had indeed said that not all Climbers knew about it. Still, something about it didn’t feel right.

Nonetheless, Melvin was also consumed in his own thoughts. His gaze dropped slightly, then he asked, "If what you are saying is true, does that mean that not only these abominable creatures are the cause of our death in this Spire?"

Keth nodded once.

"You can put it that way. Climbers who didn’t know about the barriers ended up losing their own lives whenever they encountered such a situation by chance. Close contact is all it takes. However, for people like us who have formed groups, only one most significant life is lost."

Her eyes dimmed just a little.

"As far as a life is sacrificed, the barrier would open for the Climbers to pass through."

Melvin leaned back slightly, exhaling through his nose. ’So that was why she needed the winged lycan alive? Uhm... but does that make that abomination’s life more significant than ours?’

As if reading Melvin’s thought, Keth said, "We don’t need to establish close contact with the barrier when we find it. Surely, our lives would be more significant than the lycan’s. As long as we can find a way to place the lycan in a contact position with the barrier, all we will need to do is pass through as soon as it opens."

Melvin sighed in relief. That was really worth knowing; his life can’t be compared with that of a beast.

Aurex shifted on his rock seat and raised an index finger to ask a question. "Then, what about the gates?"

It was not his first time hearing about the gate. While Melvin had been inside the cave, Keth had briefed him on the reason she kept the winged lycan alive.

Before Keth could answer, Aurex interrupted.

"Sorry, let me ask again," he said, swiping his hand as if he erased something in the air. "What happens after we pass through the barrier?"

"No one really knows."

That answer lingered longer than the others.

"All I have said is the only known information so far. Whatever happens after crossing the barrier was unknown. But there is one thing that would be certain: only when we cross the barrier can we have the slightest chance to locate a Gate."

At the mention of "Gate," Melvin instinctively turned his head toward the wall on his left where the mysterious images were drawn. He tried to connect the dots.

First, they had found an enclosed space, which is the cave that they currently used as shelter. What remained was to look for a barrier, somewhere or at a certain point, that could powerfully serve as an invisible wall. Only then would his journey of understanding what was behind the Gate of Null begin.

That first image probably represented the gate that they would find. Whatever happens after that would be left for him to link them to the second image.

That was it. Sounding so simple in the ear to achieve.

"Melvin? Are you here?" Aurex called back Melvin’s attention.

The silver-haired boy snapped back to reality and turned to meet the suspicious gazes of his companions.

"The wall again?" both Aurex and Keth asked in unison.

"No, nothing. I’m totally fine," Melvin assured. "So, about the gates..."

Keth nodded.

"We already know that Gates protect citadels in the Silver Spire. However, there were very rare cases where the situation might turn out stranger than it should be."

’The Gate of Null. Nullity. Null!’

For some reason, those words repeatedly rang in Melvin’s head. He already guessed that whatever Keth was saying in the latter would be applied to them.

’My damn luck.’

"...but all in all, only if we can pass through the barrier can we even have a chance of thinking of escaping or conquering this second step," Keth concluded.

Aurex leaned back, running a hand through his hair.

"So let me get this straight," he muttered. "To even have a chance of leaving this place... we need to find one of these barriers... find a way to sacrifice the winged lycan... and then maybe, just maybe, we’ll reach a gate?"

"Maybe. Especially when we are not as lucky as Ruven," Melvin blotted.

Two faces snapped toward him again, at the same time. "Ruven?!"

Melvin didn’t try to hide his expression this time. Instead, he responded with a full chest.

"Yes, Ruven. Didn’t you also see the Climber who reached the 5th step?"

There was a brief silence before Keth answered.

"But this is strange. There were only people currently in this second step and then him in the fifth step. How was he able to reach that height without conquering this second step?"

Her question indeed confirmed Melvin’s immediate suspicion that she knew about the formality of how these steps existed. He didn’t know if Aurex knew too.

Regardless, all that was important is that they were moving. He tried to imagine a scenario before they met Keth on the snow land.

She was probably lucky and found herself beside the cave upon entering the Spire. But because she already had enough information, she decided to hunt down a living sacrifice. There was still one thing he didn’t know yet.

He didn’t know how she managed to put the lycan to sleep, and he didn’t wish to know yet for some reason.

’Considering this fact, my luck can’t be that bad.’

If they hadn’t met Keth, they probably would have found it much more difficult to adapt to the situation. They wouldn’t have known about the barriers beforehand... and the formality for opening one. They might discover the cave, but every other thing Keth mentioned would come as "cause and effect."

"Besides," Melvin turned to meet Keth’s stare. "It’s indeed strange. But the strangest thing here is, how did you know all of this information?"

"Principal Edrin."

’The Principal?’