1109 Skipping Floors
Alex arrived on the 19th floor again.
It took him exactly 8 days to get here without stopping. The upper floors were faster to get through, but the lower floors took way too long because of how many people there were.
It took half a day most of the time just for his turn to enter the rooms.
He followed the same path as before as that was easier. He had some idea about what the other rooms had, but going there would be too risky as he couldn't necessarily win in those rooms.
Surprisingly, he got to skip floors 5, 10, and 15 as the things he had to do on that floor were a one-time task. The spirit itself explained that to him.
Now that he had gone through all the lower floors and was back on the one he had first had to go back from, he continued on his journey.
He knew what the next room was, so he entered it without hesitation.
This was a room where they tested one's reflex.
All the people were made to stand on one side of the room that was split by a barrier. On the other side of the barrier was nothing.
"Stand next to the barrier," the voice explained. "In a few moments, a ball of light will appear on the other side of the barrier. Touch the barrier as soon as you see it. This will be done for the next 10 minutes. The 5 with the least average time taken to touch the barrier will get to move on to the next floor."
Alex nodded and got ready, his vision moving rapidly as he looked for the balls that would appear on the other side.
"Begin."
No ball appeared immediately, but everyone was on their toes waiting for it.
The moment the ball appeared, everyone's hands moved. They were all already close to the barrier, so everyone touched at practically the same time.
The sanctum of course had the finer details of what had happened. The ball of light disappeared and everyone returned to waiting again.
When the light returned, they slammed against the barrier.
This happened for the next 10 minutes and finally, the winners were revealed.
Alex was easily one of the winners. With his dynamic vision being as good as it was, his hands moved before others even registered the fact that the light ball had appeared in their vision.
He was the first one to touch the barrier each time, and each time he won. So, when he was sent to the next floor, he wasn't surprised at all.
Alex looked around the 20th floor. The first thing he did after coming to any floor was search for the assassins. He looked for people's expressions when they noticed he had come.
No one seemed to be emoting anything at all in this room.
"Let's get this done with," he thought and turned towards the many rooms that were around the floor.
It seemed that about 3 of the 10 rooms had been destroyed by the crumbling space, but the remaining 7 were fine.
People waited for the gates of the 7 rooms to open up, and so did Alex.
As was the case with every 5th floor, floor 20 was unique as well. It was easier to pass like every other 5th floor, but this time around, it was not so simple.
Only one person could enter each of the rooms, so Alex had to wait for a long time before he got to enter.
When he entered, he saw that it was a rather small room, with a glowing wall in front of him.
A voice spoke, "Attack the wall with all you've got. If your attack is strong enough to match your cultivation base, you can continue moving up."
"Hmm," Alex thought and sent out a simple attack that landed on the wall. His attack was easily stronger than his cultivation base.
"You pass," the voice said. "But you have a chance to skip the next floor. If your attack is stronger than the cultivation base by a realm, you skip the next floor. If you fail, however, you will be sent back to the first floor. Choose."
"I will attack," Alex said.
"Go ahead."
Alex attacked once again, easily passing.
"Would you like to try again? This time around, you will have to attack with something stronger than your cultivation base by 2 realms. You can skip the next 2 floors."
"Yes," Alex said and attacked again.
Once again he was successful. With his Saint Foundation 3rd realm cultivation base, he could bring out a strength that was equivalent to the Saint Core 3rd realm cultivation base.
As such, these tasks were very easy for him.
"Would you like to try again?" the voice asked. "This time around, you will have to attack with something stronger than your cultivation base by 5 realms. You can skip the next 3 floors."
"Woah, 5 realms?" Alex was surprised at the sudden jump in requirements.
"You can choose to skip the next 2 floors if you don't want to," the voice said.
"No, I will attack," Alex said and attacked once more. Since his attack was stronger than Saint Foundation's 8th realm, he easily passed.
"Would you like to try again?" the voice asked one more time. "This time around, you will have to attack with something stronger than your cultivation base by 10 realms. You can skip the next 4 floors."
"10 realms…" Alex paused. "That's… Saint Core 4th realm."
That jump in requirement surprised him once again.
"I can do it," he said and attacked once again. This time around, however, it was no simple attack. He put his body, sword, and Qi into one attack as he struck the wall in front of him.
He passed the requirement by just 1 realm and passed the challenge.
"Would you like to try again?" the voice spoke once again. "This time around, you will have to attack with something stronger than your cultivation base by 20 realms. You can skip the next 5 floors."
"Okay, no, I can't do that. I'm fine with what I've achieved," Alex said. 20 realms higher than his current cultivation base was Saint Soul 5th realm. He would not try that even if he had a fraction of his current intelligence. Even if he added his blood aura into the equation, he would still come a few realms short of the requirement.
"Congratulations on skipping the next 4 floors," the voice spoke and Alex teleported away. When he reappeared, he was on the 25th floor.
He looked around quickly to search for any assassins he might catch in the act. Unfortunately for him, everyone turned around to look at him. There were barely a few dozen people here, so everyone turned to see when a new one came around.
This was an unfamiliar place for him since his recent start, so he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do there. He looked towards the front and saw a single room that was occupied.
There were two other rooms, but they seemed to have been damaged. So, he sat down and looked around at the people that were there as he waited for his turn.
Every single one of them was strong by comparison, each well into their Saint realm. Not a single True realm cultivator had made their way up here, even though there wasn't anything actively fighting against their way.
The gate opened up and a single person entered.
Each 5th floor was a solo challenge, so Alex wondered what this one was. A few people trickled into the 25th floor while a steady line of them left the floor.
After about an hour of waiting around, it was his turn to enter.
Once again, there was a wall in front of him in the small room, similar to the one from the 20th floor.
The voice spoke once again.
"If you can endure the upcoming spiritual attack that is meant for someone around your cultivation base, you pass," the voice said. "You cannot use any of your tools for this."
Alex gave a look of understanding when he heard that. 'That is simple enough,' he thought and got ready for the attack.
He strengthened his mental defenses as well as he could by keeping his spiritual energy active and ready to fight back.
Suddenly, without any warning, the attack landed on him. It felt like Heaven's Impact, only stronger for some reason.
It was definitely a better skill than Heaven's Impact, that was for sure.
The splitting headache lasted for a few seconds before Alex was back on his feet, ready for another one.
"You pass."
He was taken aback when he suddenly felt the teleportation aura that sent him up the floor.
He arrived on the 26th floor, very surprised by the fact that he could not skip the next 5 floors, as he had done on the 20th floor.
Given the way the last challenge was constructed, he was sure that was the case. However, it had turned out to not be the case.
Since there was nothing he could do about it, he decided not to give much thought to the whole thing at all.
"So, how many people are—"
He teleported away just as a sword passed through where he was standing before. Alex reappeared and attacked with his own sword.
However, the man easily blocked his attack.
'Saint Core 9th realm,' Alex thought as he quickly checked the cultivation base of his attacker.
He looked at the person who attacked him and was surprised to see that he had a very pale face and body.
"My god, just how many clones are you guys using?"
