Three days after clearing Floor 2, SeTa stood at the rim of a wind-split canyon—Floor 3's gateway trial—a jagged rift that pulsed with unstable mana currents. The sky above was cloudless, yet lightning forked in unpredictable bursts, grounding into spires of blackened stone.
Floor 3 was alive with madness.
The terrain changed constantly. One moment solid rock, the next—mist, illusion, or mirage. The System hadn't bothered to explain the rules. It simply prompted:
> [Trial of Reality Bending – Floor 3 Boss: The Refraction Beast] [Environmental Hazard: Mana Instability – Bonus AP for Navigational Creativity]
SeTa adjusted the weight of his coat. Behind him, no one followed.
Though word of his solo dungeon clears had reached deeper into Floor 1's community, and whispers of "Silent Climber" trailed him like a myth, none had dared mirror his path beyond Floor 2. Not yet.
This floor was different. It felt more alive—reactive. His footfalls echoed back with voices that weren't his own. Yet he felt no fear.
The evolution of his Inception EX skill over the past two floors had granted him mastery of sensory distortion and partial gravity suppression. While others relied on brute strength or class skills, SeTa turned the tower's chaos into a weapon.
> [New System Log – Inception EX Fragment Recognized: Concept Layering Available]
He smirked.
Concept Layering—it allowed him to stack two minor concepts and bind them into a temporary field. For now, it was unstable and short-ranged, but it gave him options. With it, he could nullify heat and momentum in a single zone. Or dampen sound and light.
Which meant, against something like the Refraction Beast, he might actually have the upper hand.
—
The trial began without warning.
A howling pulse rippled through the canyon as hundreds of mirrored shards rose from the ground like blooming glass. They hovered, twisted, and formed a skeletal chimera with too many eyes and no real mass.
> [Boss Identified: Refraction Beast – Sentient Mirror of Floor 3's Will]
It screamed—not a roar, but a cascade of duplicated sounds, bouncing and confusing directional hearing.
SeTa didn't flinch.
Instead, he activated Concept Layering: Dissonance + Echo Delay. A field blossomed at his feet, warping the timing of sound around him. The Refraction Beast's attacks became disjointed—its screeches playing seconds too late, its reflective illusions appearing just slightly off-beat.
Then he blinked—vanishing using his stealth-cast skill Shift Veil, now evolved to ride on fractured light rather than shadows.
He appeared behind the Beast, drove a spectral dagger laced with Bleed Sigils into what passed for a spine, and triggered a burst of Null Gravity.
The monster collapsed—temporarily weighed down by its own fragile form.
But the Tower wasn't done. It adapted.
The shards burst outward, severing the illusion field and slashing through the gravity zone. One clipped his shoulder. Blood bloomed. He stumbled but smiled through clenched teeth.
> [New Effect Unlocked: Reactive Feedback – Pain Converts to Bonus INT for 3 Seconds]
Perfect.
Using his newly unlocked Rune Core, a passive core trait absorbed by clearing Floor 2's sub-boss, SeTa activated a chained combo: Pulse Void + Blur Step + Bind Echo.
He danced between shards, tagging each with a timed detonation. The final strike came from above, where he layered Null Motion into his boots and launched into the sky—then fell like a meteor with a conjured blade made from compressed mana.
The shard creature screamed and exploded in a rain of crystalline dust.
> [Boss Defeated – 2,100 AP Awarded] [Inception EX has Grown – Subskill Gained: Echo Clone (5-Second Illusory Playback)]
SeTa rolled onto his back, breathing hard.
The sky dimmed again.
> [Optional Path Unlocked: Tower Echo Chamber – Floor 3.5 Sub-Trial: "Perfect Reflection"] [Warning: No AP Award. Only Skill Evolution and Artifact Rewards.]
He sat up.
Interesting.
Optional sub-trials between floors were rarely mentioned in public System logs. And the lack of AP made them unattractive to most Climbers. But SeTa didn't need AP right now—he needed precision. Control.
The clone skill intrigued him. A five-second playback of his movements could be used for counter-ambushes, spatial fakes, or even escape maneuvers. But it was still unreliable.
He opened his palm and activated Echo Clone. A ghostly version of himself appeared and mimicked his actions from five seconds ago.
A moment later, the clone vanished.
Unpolished. But promising.
He marked the location in his mental map, noting where the echo chamber door had appeared. Not all secrets needed conquering now. And not all power came from direct confrontation.
Instead of rushing forward, SeTa decided to rest. He set a rune trap, formed a silent barrier of compressed light, and leaned back against a cooling stone.
Three floors down. Two to go before Floor 5's rumored Champion.
He wasn't invincible. He wasn't even fully awakened.
But he was accelerating.
And for the first time… the Tower was watching him back.