“So what I am hearing is that you are onboard with this idea?” I question.

“Very much so.” Talus answers, nodding. “In fact, I think it is a very good idea.”

After the tournament had ended and I’d said my goodbyes to everybody, I had come straight back to Talus and explained everything that had happened. I had also told him about all the rewards I’d earned at the conclusion of the tournament, as well as what I had planned to do with one of my two legendary upgrade orbs.

“Well, now that I have your approval on this, that means I have somebody else to blame if it turns out to be a complete waste.”

Before Talus can say anything in response, I use the upgrade orb. It disappears from my hand, and the item in my other hand glows a bright yellow for a few seconds. There are no noticeable changes to the item, but the notification I get lets me know that the process had been completed.

Tower of Legends (Special) Has been upgraded to Tower of Legends (Legendary)

It had become extremely clear to me that the knowledge within this book would be very useful as I climbed the tower. The knowledge it held within would have completely changed the way I approached some floors if I had known their secrets beforehand. Even if this book would cease to exist at the end of the tutorial, the value it could bring me now more than made up for that.

I quickly check the description of the book with identify, seeing that it has in fact changed, though not very much.

This book contains the secrets behind the Tower of Nixtias. Within it holds the history of the tower, as well as the secrets of all floors and champion floors within the tower. This tome will be immediately destroyed upon completion of the tutorial.

The description had gone from saying it held “some secrets” to holding “the secrets”. That probably meant that it would tell me a lot more about each floor, despite the fact that it already felt like it was telling me all there was to know. Just how much more could there be to learn?

More importantly, it mentioned the existence of champion floors. This is the second time I’ve heard of them, with the first time being not even 10 minutes ago when I obtained the floor bypass token.

“What’s a champion floor?” I ask Talus, looking to him.

“Unfortunately, I cannot tell you.” The god responds, shaking his head. “While I know quite a bit about the tower, I am still restricted from telling you all I know about it. What I can say is that all I would be able to tell you should be contained in the book anyways.”

I sigh, my shoulders sagging a bit. “I’m guessing that means I have a lot of reading ahead of me.”

“Just skip to the sections about the champion floors for now. You can skim over the others later.”

I crack open the book, flipping close to the end of it. When I’d first obtained the book, it had only shown the information for the first 30 floors. Given that there were a lot of blank pages in the book after that, I am pretty sure more information would be available after progressing further through the floors. Now, it looks like I won’t have to worry about that at all.

“Holy shit.” I mutter, flipping through page after page of dense text. It seems like the book being upgraded had completely removed that restriction, and now it simply held the information for every floor, regardless of if I had been to it or not. I quickly flipped past the pages for floor 40, then 45. Eventually, I reached the last normal floor of the tower.

50 floors. That is how many are contained within the tower. I had already completed floor 35, meaning that I had only 15 floors left to go. That made the 128 days I had remaining for my time limit seem like an absolute eternity. Even if the progression of floors getting longer and longer continued, there was just no way that time limit could pose a problem.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

At least, that is what I had been thinking. That thought process had come to a screeching halt after I reached the section on champion floors. It came right after the floor 50 chapter, and just reading about it made my thoughts stir with anticipation.

Champion floors are unlocked upon the completion of floor 50 and the tutorial. They are the ultimate test of one’s capabilities, demanding mastery over each facet of one’s power. There are 10 total champion floors, and each one is highly personalized to the individual taking them. Upon leaving a champion floor without successfully completing it, access to the floor is locked for 100 hours. Completion of even a single champion floor is a massive accomplishment, and a testament to one’s skill that proves to everybody they are not to be taken lightly.

The chapter went on and on about the floors, such as possible challenges that may be given depending on the type of class you had. As a mage, I’d probably get a test on my ability to manipulate my mana. As a duelist, I’d probably be put in a very difficult fight for another floor. As an arcane creator, I’d probably need to make some complex device with my mana for one of them.

All of this was interesting, but what piqued my interest even more was when I got to the section about rewards for completing champion floors.

Rewards upon completing champion floors:

1% increase to all stats per completed floor

1 level per completed floor

Pioneer title upgrade after 1 and 5 floors completed

Each of those rewards were extremely good, but the next rewards sent a shockwave of thoughts through my head as I read them.

Rewards upon 10th champion floor completion:

Option to free 1 god from the tutorial

True Completion of the tutorial

Personal meeting with Nixtias

There are suddenly so many questions I want to ask Talus, but I don’t know which to ask first and which he can even answer. Stumbling over my thoughts is going to result in zero questions being asked, so I just say the first one that my mouth can snatch from my brain.

“What the hell?”

Okay, not the most useful question. Let’s try that again.

“What does it mean true completion of the tutorial?”

That’s more like it.

“True completion in the sense that you’ve fully completed it. Sure, 50 floors is technically when you finish the tutorial, but beating every champion floor is truly completing it.”

“Well, it says as much by it calling the tenth one ‘true completion’.” I shake my head. “I’ll even get to meet somebody named Nixtias for doing that. Who is he anyways? I know the tower is named after him, but other than that I have no clue what his deal is.”

“Well that’s an easy question. Nixtias is the creator of the system.”

“Creator? As in he made the whole thing from the ground up?”

“Yep. Nobody is completely certain why he did it. Some people have theorized it is simply his way to grow stronger himself, others think he did it to stave off boredom as the most powerful being in existence.”

“How powerful even is he?”

“That is a pointless question to ask. To try and quantify his power is like trying to count to infinity. There is simply no limit to his power. He has complete omniscience and control over everything. My title of ‘god’ may be one that was hard earned, but to call him anything other than an all powerful deity would be understatement.”

“Sounds like he is pretty powerful. Have you ever met him?”

“Once, yes.” Talus nods. “It was quite a long time ago. In the earlier days of the system, Nixtias would personally greet every single person entering it from a new solar system. I’ve heard he doesn’t do that anymore, though I don’t know why.”

“Is there anything I have to be nervous about when I meet him?”

Talus chuckles. “Look at you, already seeing it as an inevitability. Don’t get ahead of yourself, because the champion floors will be tougher than anything else you have faced so far within the tower.”

“Yeah yeah, but if I don’t complete them then you will still be stuck here. That means that there is nobody outside the tower who will know about my extreme levels of overconfidence.”

“I wasn’t saying it is a bad thing to be so confident. In fact, that is exactly the mindset I want you to have. If I am being honest, the odds of me escaping this tower are not high, not at all. Very few gods have ever left once they were imprisoned here, and I was one of the first to be trapped in the tower.”

“Now look at who needs some confidence.” I joke.

Talus smiles. “Well, by the very nature of probability sometimes it is ok to bet against the odds. If you want my true opinion, I have full faith that you will get me out of this tower. When you do, you will have a very powerful ally to back you up in whatever you choose to do. Now go and do some reading so you are as knowledgeable as possible on the remaining floors in the tower.”

I halfheartedly salute to him. “Sir yes sir.”

I stick my dimensional anchor in the ground and begin to flip through the book. It is much thicker now than it had previously been, so a lot of information must have been added. I’d need to reread the chapters I already went through. I sigh, knowing that I had a lot of reading ahead of me. At least I could also spend this time practicing my mana manipulation, as before I evolved I wanted to upgrade that skill one last time.