"So, I accepted the architect's offer and settled on this floor. Normally, the Tower readjusts the ti flow for each floor.
But here, the ti is different for every individual.
And, as a punishnt for my sins, the architect adjusted my ti to such an extre speed that everything else moves like a crawl outside the Tower.
Even you, despite how much your ti has been adjusted, are still moving slower than .
I can make tea in the ti it takes you to say a single word. And I have to speak slowly just so you can understand.
If I spoke at my normal speed, then youwon'tbeabletohear&(/% -"
At the end of his sentence, Jiroeki's voice sped up, growing faster and faster.
Then, his words blurred together into an incomprehensible ss, even to Arlon's superior hearing.
And finally, though Jiroeki's lips were still moving, there was no sound at all.
It was that fast.
"You should've seen your face," Jiroeki said, laughing. "It wasn't as amusing as so others who were beyond shocked when they heard talk fast. Hehe.
Anyway, let's continue.
This is the floor for those who seek to understand the Tower. You could call it a punishnt floor for interfering with the Tower—
Or a place to gain access to information.
Ah, I said 'the Tower,' but there's only one caretaker for all of them."
"Are there more than two Towers?" Arlon asked.
He already knew of at least two.
One was the Tower on the planet the Trionians had visited with Zeno. The other was in Trion itself.
But beyond that, he had no idea.
"Two?" Jiroeki raised an eyebrow. "Why did you say two? People usually ask, 'Is there more than one Tower?' Let check."
He hastily moved his hands, and sothing resembling Zeno's system interface appeared in front of him.
"What!?" Jiroeki's eyes widened. "Why is there a Tower on the planet called Trion?"
Then, he turned sharply toward Arlon. "Tell why you said 'two Towers,'" he demanded.
Arlon complied.
After seeing Jiroeki's speed firsthand, he knew there was no point in resisting. He didn't stand a chance.
So, he explained everything—the Tower on Trion, Karl's wish, and the state of the Tower itself.
"Sigh… I'm the caretaker, so I'm supposed to do maintenance on the Towers from ti to ti. That one must've slipped past since it wasn't created by the architect, but by EVR itself.
And it hadn't taken any visitors for a long ti. That's another reason it went unnoticed.
It'll be fine now, so let's move on to your question.
Yes, there are many Towers created by the architect—
And maybe even so stray ones now that I've learned it's possible.
All the Towers connect through this place.
Even then, I don't get many visitors.
To put it in perspective, the 'trillions of years' since the last visitor I ntioned? That was asured according to your ti flow in the Tower."
Jiroeki smirked. "I can convert ti between any ti flow instantly. Impressive, isn't it?"
He was flexing again.
Arlon didn't mind.
He was more focused on the connected Towers. That was a revelation he hadn't expected.
"Anyway," Jiroeki continued. "This floor is where people end up after interfering with the Tower's system.
I should also inform you about your Tower.
It's broken. But I can fix it before you can even finish a sentence.
Also, I'll need to change the monsters there.
Right now, the monsters are just copies of the ones from the other planet.
At first, it was fine. But copies shouldn't breed that much with themselves.
I told you that we're the sa race, but the ones in your Tower… They've already changed.
If you were to kill my race, they'd drop a crystal-like object."
That answered one of Arlon's lingering questions.
If he had killed monsters during the ti of the heroes, they would have dropped cores.
And the monsters in the Tower were supposed to be the ones the heroes had imprisoned in the past.
So, they should have given him cores too.
But they hadn't.
Now, Arlon still didn't fully understand why, but at least he knew it had sothing to do with being trapped in an unmaintained Tower.
Still, there were more urgent questions to ask.
"What will happen to ? Can I leave this place and go back to climbing the Tower?"
"Hmm… Yes, you can leave anyti you want," Jiroeki said. "But you won't like the way it is—because of the state of your Tower."
Arlon's expression darkened.
"What do you an by that?"
"First of all, let explain how you got here.
When you interfered with the mana flow in the Tower, it locked itself and sent you here.
There were two reasons the architect designed it this way.
The first is that those who seek to learn about the Tower would eventually do sothing like this—so they'd end up here, where they can gain knowledge.
The second is that those who want to harm the Tower would also co here.
In your case, even though it worked like a fail-safe, we can count it as the first reason.
Phew… If it had been the second, I wouldn't want to be you."
Jiroeki shook his head, then continued.
"But since you didn't know about my instructions, you had no idea how to get here.
Here's how it actually works:
- The challenger should move toward the sound for a year, according to their ti flow.
- The challenger must move at least 8 hours a day, also according to their ti flow.
- The challenger can stop and start listening to the sound by using the word *****.
- …"
And the instructions continued.
Arlon wished he had been able to understand this language back then.
But there was no use regretting the past.
"And lastly," Jiroeki said, "to go back, the challenger must do the sa—moving in the opposite direction for a year in their ti flow."
"That's it?" Arlon asked.
"Yes, that's it. But the other problem is…
Since I'll be restarting your Tower, you'll have to start from the beginning."
Arlon's expression froze.
"What?" he said sharply. "Aren't you the caretaker? Can't you just bring back to the 90th floor? I'm not asking for favoritism."
"I'm sorry, but that's not possible." Jiroeki shrugged. "Ah, but I can assure you that climbing will be easier now that the Tower is fixed."
Even though Arlon knew that was true—
With proper monster spawns, without excess creatures, at a lower level—
He still felt a wave of anger rising in his mind.
But he didn't act rashly.
It had been two months outside, aning he only had one month left.
But with his current level, and now that the Tower was working properly, he decided—
He'd be out in one week according to the ti flow outside.
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