"It is popular that once a Climber’s virtual body transmigrates into the Silver Spire, their ultimate goal becos 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 bla 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 an, no one would love to live their entire life fighting abominable creatures all in the na 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," lvin suggested calmly. "The more obvious and simple, the more dangerous and difficult achieving it becos."
"Exactly," Keth snapped her fingers in agreent. "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."
lvin’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 sa ultimate thing," she continued, and after a short pause, with her head lowered, Keth added. "This information is sothing Climbers generally do not have access to."
lvin glanced at her imdiately after she said those last words. It implied that she was speaking of her own personal knowledge and not sothing that could have been taught in school. No, it doesn’t seem right. This was her first ti entering the Silver Spire, which ant soone 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 lvin’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 t."
"And what condition is that?" Aurex asked, though sothing in his tone suggested he already wasn’t going to like the answer.
Keth looked at him but didn’t ignore him this ti. 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 seed 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 lvin and Keth. Thus, he was supposed to be the more inford of the two. All the months he had spent at Axiom Academy, how co he never knew of it?
Keth had indeed said that not all Climbers knew about it. Still, sothing about it didn’t feel right.
Nonetheless, lvin was also consud in his own thoughts. His gaze dropped slightly, then he asked, "If what you are saying is true, does that an 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 ford groups, only one most significant life is lost."
Her eyes dimd just a little.
"As far as a life is sacrificed, the barrier would open for the Climbers to pass through."
lvin 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 lvin’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."
lvin 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 ti hearing about the gate. While lvin 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 ask again," he said, swiping his hand as if he erased sothing 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 ntion of "Gate," lvin 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, sowhere 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.
"lvin? Are you here?" Aurex called back lvin’s attention.
The silver-haired boy snapped back to reality and turned to et the suspicious gazes of his companions.
"The wall again?" both Aurex and Keth asked in unison.
"No, nothing. I’m totally fine," lvin 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 so reason, those words repeatedly rang in lvin’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 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," lvin blotted.
Two faces snapped toward him again, at the sa ti. "Ruven?!"
lvin didn’t try to hide his expression this ti. 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 confird lvin’s imdiate 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 t 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 so reason.
’Considering this fact, my luck can’t be that bad.’
If they hadn’t t 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 ntioned would co as "cause and effect."
"Besides," lvin turned to et 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?’
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