1101 Playground
The room Alex entered on the 4th floor had a movement speed test. Whoever was the fastest got to go to the next floor.
Surprisingly only 10 people got to enter this room, out of which 3 passed and the rest failed.
Alex easily passed this room, mostly by cheating as he did not run the entire course, but rather teleported to the finish line and became the winner.
The others did not like what he did, but what could they really do? The losers were sent back to the first floor while the winners were sent to the 5th floor.
Alex appeared with the other 2 people and looked around in surprise at the lack of people on the 5th floor. Unlike the lower floors where there were hundreds of people at any given time, this floor barely had a dozen of them, and that too only because they were either resting or waiting for someone else to come join them.
Alex looked around and saw a massive black pillar at the center of the room, with no other visible rooms on any of the floors at all.
From the looks of it, there was only one thing to do on this floor.
Give the pillar your blood.
“It wants my blood?” Alex thought as he stared at the floating text next to the black pillar. The other people were somewhat surprised to read the words as well.
However, they wasted no time as they cut their palm or fingers and dabbed the blood onto the black pillar. Then, they were taken away.
“Such a simple way to go up a floor,” Alex thought. There wasn’t even any competition.
But why was it asking for his blood? Was there some sinister reason?
“Hey Godslayer, can you make any sense of this?” he asked.
“Hmm?” Godslayer asked. “Make sense of what?”
“This, why does this thing want my blood?” Alex asked.
“What do you mean?” Godslayer asked. “Where are we?”
“Were you sleeping again? Wake up! We’re in the Sundering Sanctum, and I’m surrounded by assassins that I can’t even find,” Alex said. “And now this pillar is asking me for my blood. Do you have any idea why that might be?”
“How should I know?” Godslayer asked.
Alex sighed. That was a useless conversation. At least he was awake now.
“Don’t sleep. I might need your help on the upper floors,” Alex said.
He walked over to the pillar and a bit of his blood flowed out from his palm which he placed on the black pillar as well. His blood was absorbed by the pillar and then he teleported up a floor.
On the 6th floor, Alex saw nearly a thousand different people, all of who were waiting for the doors to open. This floor had 3 rooms in total, of which 1 seemed to have been destroyed by the crumbling space, leaving just the other 2 to go through.
As such, there were a lot of people waiting in a queue.
“How long do I have to wait?” he couldn’t help but ask.
“A few hours for sure, maybe even a few days,” a voice spoke from behind him.
Alex quickly turned around to see a man standing behind him. He hesitated as he looked at the perfectly dressed man with a gentle smile on his face.
He did not trust such a man, especially with the assassins running amok.
Alex got on guard, but then he noticed something. Something… was off about this man.
“What the fuck?” he couldn’t help but curse when he saw that the man’s body… was illusory. He was practically see-through.
“Are you… a ghost? No, a soul? What are you?” Alex asked.
“That’s not a soul,” Godslayer answered.
“I am the spirit of this place, master White Tiger,” the man said. “I would like to humbly welcome you to this playground.”
‘Master White Tiger?’ Alex was surprised.
“Why is he calling you a White Tiger?” Godslayer asked with a confused voice.
“Not the time,” Alex said. He looked towards the spirit and asked, “What do you mean by spirit of this place? Are you like a departed soul that is still haunting this place?”
“Of course not, stupid,” Godslayer shouted in his head. “He’s the spirit of this artifact.”
Alex wondered for a moment if he heard it correctly. “Wait… an Artifact spirit? What artifact?” he asked as he looked around. A slow realization dawned on him when he looked around.
“No way!”
“This tower is indeed an artifact created by a genius Artificer,” the spirit said. “It’s been passed through many owners for a long time before it came into the hand of my last master.”
“Holy shit! Such a massive thing is an artifact?” he couldn’t help but be surprised. How was an entire 45-floor tall tower just an artifact?
“Stop it. You’re making it evident that you’re a frog in a well. Such artifacts are nothing in the Immortal worlds,” Godslayer said.
Alex collected himself a bit and asked a question. “Who is your master?”
“He went by the name of Guan Xi,” the spirit said.
“Anything else?” Alex asked.
“My last master had neither a named origin nor an eventful life. I’m afraid anything more would not help one such as yourself, master White Tiger,” the spirit said.
“White Tiger… you tested my blood,” Alex said. “So you know about the White tigers?”
“Of course, who doesn’t know about one of the four kings of the beasts,” the spirit said.
“You have the White Tiger’s blood?” Godslayer asked.
“Yes,” Alex said, not able to keep the secret any longer. “Now don’t go on an angry rant about how they are bad. I don’t have time for that.”
“But… urgh,” Godslayer grumbled and didn’t say anything.
Alex finally looked back at the artifact spirit and asked, “why did you test our blood? Is that relevant to some rooms on the upper floors?”
“No,” the spirit said. “The blood is not relevant to the competition itself.”
“Then why?” Alex asked.
pAn,D a-n0ve1,c-o-m “Because my last owner was adamant about not handing me over to the demons, so I wanted to fulfill his wishes,” the spirit said.
“Not handing you to the demons?… what?” Alex asked.
“Yes, I am searching the blood of anyone that comes in so that I can find those who do not have the demon’s bloodline,” the spirit said. “I’m fulfilling my previous owner’s wish by searching for a new owner that is not a demon.”
Alex’s eyes went wide. “This artifact is in need of a new owner?” he asked.
“I’m afraid I require a new owner so that they may fix me. If left like this for long enough, I will most likely be forever lost to the void,” the spirit said.
Alex was a little surprised to hear that. He wouldn’t have ever thought of owning something like this, but if he was being given the opportunity, he would definitely accept it.
“Do you show yourself to everyone or just the ones that have what it takes to be the new owner?” Alex asked.
“I show myself to neither,” the figure said. “I showed myself to you because that is what I must do in the presence of someone from the White Tiger family.”
“Does that mean I am eligible to take you as my treasure?” Alex asked.
“If that is what you wish,” the spirit said.
Alex smiled widely. ‘Screw the rest of the floors. I can just leave this place right now,’ he thought.
“Fine, how do I make you my treasure?” Alex asked. “Do I give you some of my blood essences?”
“Oh…” the spirit was a little taken aback. “I cannot allow you to take me just yet.”
“Huh? But you said…”
“You have to complete all the floors and activate the formation on the 45th floor,” the spirit said. “That is what my previous owner wanted my new owner to be able to do.”
“Wait… so I have to complete all the floors and then you will become my treasure?” Alex asked. “We can’t do it right now?”
“I’m afraid not,” the spirit said.
Alex sighed. He was so enthusiastic about leaving too.
“Fine,” Alex said. “I’ll get you soon enough. Although, tell me. What are you good at? Can you fight? Or trap people in here?”
The spirit gave him a blank look. “Master White Tiger, I am not an artifact to be used in battle,” it said.
“Where are you used then? For training?” Alex asked.
“For recreational or competitive games,” the spirit said. “I told you before, this is a playground. It was created by the immortals for the mortals to be used as it is being used right now.”
Alex couldn’t hide the disappointed feeling from his voice when he said, “That’s it?”
“I’m afraid so,” the spirit.
He shook his head. ‘Whatever, if I can make this my artifact, this aids me in escaping early,’ he thought.
He looked at the spirit and asked, “Can you help me in this competition then? To get an edge on my opponents?”
The spirit smiled. “I cannot,” he said. “I have to remain unbiased.”
“Can you tell me which rooms have what then?” Alex asked.
The spirit shook his head.
“Tell me where the space is crumbling?” he asked.
The spirit shook his head again.
“What can you do then?” Alex asked.
“I can wish you the best of luck,” the spirit said with a wide smile on his face.
Alex sighed. “Thanks, I guess,” he said.
“Please wait for your turn to come and complete the floors as quickly as you can,” the spirit said. “I’m rooting for you.”
Then, it disappeared.