ttznovel Chapter 432: First Floor of Ascension Tower
Chapter 432: First Floor of Ascension Tower
The speed of the charging goblin would have seemed incredibly fast in the eyes of a normal Ascendant rank being—a blur of motion that would require serious reaction time to counter.
However, to Leon, it was painfully, almost insultingly slow.
Like watching someone move through water.
He just stood there calmly with his sword still sheathed in its scabbard, gripped loosely in his right hand. His expression remained completely neutral, almost bored.
The goblin closed the distance rapidly, raising its crude iron sword for a devastating overhead strike aimed at splitting Leon’s skull.
When it was mere meters away, entering optimal striking range—
FLASH!
Leon’s hand moved.
A single slash, drawn and completed in one fluid motion. No flashy skills, no elaborate techniques, no elemental enhancement. Just a perfectly executed normal slash with pure physical power and impeccable form.
SLICE!
The goblin split cleanly in half vertically, its body separating into two perfect halves that fell away from each other.
THUD! THUD!
Both halves hit the ground simultaneously.
Too easy. Far too easy for something supposedly at my rank.
Leon flicked his blade once to remove the blood, then resheathed it smoothly.
High above in the air, watching this entire exchange with increasingly dark eyes, the trial overseer who had already formed a deep, murderous grudge against this impudent human merely scoffed loudly at the display.
Showing off. The arrogant worm is showing off to me specifically.
Velrith’s purple eyes narrowed with intense irritation.
It’s just the first layer of the trial—the absolute easiest threshold. And his nonchalant demeanor, acting as if he’s some one-in-a-million genius from the Celestial Realm rather than lower-world trash.
It just irks me beyond measure.
After killing the creature so effortlessly, Leon received a system message. The familiar transparent golden panel appeared before him, but this time it bore the distinct tower logo behind it—indicating the message originated directly from the Ascension Tower itself rather than his personal cosmic system.
[First Layer Cleared Successfully]
[Trial Completion Time: 3 seconds]
[Evaluation: In Progress]
[You may now choose to withdraw from the trial and claim your current rewards, or proceed to the Second Layer]
[Rest Period Granted: 10 minutes before automatic continuation]
Without even resting for a single second—without so much as taking a deep breath—Leon directly chose to continue immediately to the second layer of the trial.
No reason to delay. I’m not even slightly tired.
Just then, the corpse remains of the defeated goblin began glowing with brilliant white light.
SHIMMER! DISSOLVE!
It completely vanished without leaving any traces whatsoever—not even a speck of blood remained on the pristine arena floor, as if the creature had never existed.
The cleaning mechanism was impressively efficient.
Then, a couple of seconds afterward—
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
Ten similar-looking goblins materialized in front of Leon simultaneously, appearing in a rough semicircle formation.
The pressure emanating from their bodies was noticeably much stronger than the first trial monster. Just by observing their sharp, focused gazes and coordinated positioning, one could immediately tell they were fundamentally different from the previous mindless goblin.
However, using his cosmic system’s identification function, Leon could see their basic information clearly:
[Trial Goblin - Ascendant Rank] [Trial Goblin - Ascendant Rank] [Trial Goblin - Ascendant Rank] ...
Still all Ascendant rank according to the system. But clearly enhanced versions.
The moment they fully appeared and solidified, Leon felt distinctly how they enhanced their physical bodies with flowing mana—not crudely but with practiced efficiency. The thin coating of light on their various weapons was unmistakably Level 2 Aura, showing genuine combat mastery.
They immediately surrounded him from all directions with tactical precision, moving into a proper combat formation. Their weapons were notably different and complementary—sword, wand, spear, shield, mace, bow—like a balanced party formation designed for group combat.
Interesting. They’re coordinating like an actual adventuring party.
Leon simply stood there calmly in the center of their formation, not moving to preemptively attack.
Then it began.
WHOOSH! CRACK! BOOM!
A barrage of long-range attacks came flying in his direction from multiple angles simultaneously—fire bolts from the wand-wielder, arrows from the archer, thrown spears, everything converging on his position.
Leon merely mobilized his ice element with minimal effort.
SHIMMER! CRACK!
Thin barriers of crystallized ice materialized in the air around him, intercepting and deflecting every single attack with perfect precision. Not a single projectile touched even a strand of his hair.
He didn’t move even an inch, maintaining his calm expression throughout the onslaught.
However, the goblins didn’t directly charge at him from close range like the first one had done. They kept attacking methodically from distance, maintaining their formation and continuing the barrage.
Smart. They’re testing my defenses first.
Looking into their eyes, Leon could clearly see they possessed intelligence similar to an adult human at the very least. They were deliberately trying to wear him down and exhaust his resources, using their numerical advantage tactically.
They’re treating this like a real battle. Conserving energy, probing for weaknesses, maintaining formation discipline.
Leon didn’t know if, in this evaluation for the first floor, the time taken to defeat enemies affected the final assessment or not. The overseer hadn’t told him anything about scoring criteria—he’d just glossed over the explanation quickly, providing only the bare minimum information needed to understand what had to be done and nothing more.
Deliberately vague. Probably hoping I’d make mistakes from ignorance.
So just to be on the safe side and avoid potentially affecting his evaluation negatively, Leon decided not to waste any more time playing defensive.
Besides, I need to test my current combat capabilities properly.
However, he had to acknowledge that the difficulty jump from the first layer to the second layer went from approximately 1 to 100 immediately—no gradual progression in between whatsoever.
For a normal person with standard talent and training, this level alone would be more than enough for them to wisely give up the challenge and quit here before suffering serious injury or death.
Most people would struggle significantly. Some would die.
However, Leon was extraordinarily far from normal by any reasonable standard.