Tower of Endless: Death Granted Entry

Chapter 32: Strip!

"Not at all." Moon gave an answer they Samuel expected.

"It felt like I was punched." Moon explained.

Thus, the trial and error approach progressed slowly.

Uon, under Samuel’s strict instructions, kept upscaling the damage output cast upon Moon’s body.

Though while it was getting harder for Uon to produce more Echo and less product, Samuel was keen to adjust or filter the damage before it hit Moon’s body.

One time after another, he flicked his fingers, stripping the elemental layers from the arts until only raw Echo remained.

Still—

It failed, every single time, without giving Moon a chance to feel anything.

Even Fate Alert never went past the baseline.

Through the process, Teacher Samuel didn’t seem to be randomly picking arcane arts for Uon to try.

He started with wind, and before changing elements, he tried five different variations of wind arcane arts that didn’t hold lethality.

Teacher Samuel explained that feeling echo is like feeling an extension of your body that is more free and less restrained.

Every time Moon was getting hit, he was waiting for that sensation to come, to find the echo that would extend freely beyond his body.

But no matter what they tried, within the constraint of non-lethal arts of course, it kept ending up in absolute failure.

Lethal arts were not something they should try casually.

In the end, Teacher Samuel made the decision.

"Follow me," he ordered the duo.

And they both, without a question, followed him.

They were walking in the direction of Hall 1, and before long, it was indeed Hall 1.

Afraid to raise a question and irritate him further, they both followed, mouths sealed.

Once they were inside the hall, Samuel walked as slowly as ever to the furthest corner across the entrance.

He waved his hand, as if commanding something to open a path for him.

Creak~

The sound of stone pulling against another softly sounded briefly, before suddenly vanishing.

Leaving behind a gap in the solid walls, an entrance to a place hidden underground.

A few steps further, they saw a flight of stairs going down, deeper below the hall appeared before them.

They couldn’t tell if it was old, as old as the facility or a recently built room... There wasn’t any signs that could indicate the age of the place.

Or even if it was there before the facility.

Moon, and even Uon who had been here for a long while, were unaware of it.

Without explanation and without giving them a chance to ask, Samuel led the way downstairs.

Moon took a quick glance at Fate Alert before following him into the secret room.

At the end of the stairs, a new scene unfolded, leaving even Uon, the veteran of this branch, in awe.

"Mother of arcane," Uon exclaimed in disbelief.

It was a square room, with a small round platform in the middle.

And that was the end of anything normal about it...

The walls were littered with arcane circles, drawn and charged to full capacity of almost every single elemental type to exist.

And some of these circles were suspended mid-air, without a caster or a medium to fix them upon, leaving Uon’s mind on the verge of collapse.

But that wasn’t the end of the mysterious room. The sheer complexity of each of these circles was beyond anything he had ever seen in the association or in books.

"Teacher, you never said you were an arcanist..." Uon swallowed hard. "Are you by any chance a high-ranked member of the association?"

Uon, since coming here, had only been maintaining pre-existing arcane all over the branch. Most of them were lifestyle arcane related to cleaning, maintaining toilets, and cooking. He had never seen or heard of anything like this.

Mesmerized, he started walking toward one of them, his fingers extended toward it. His impressive height gave him access to almost every single one of them with a simple wave of his hand.

Ignoring his question, "Don’t touch anything," Samuel warned, stopping him along with his blind excitement.

As for Moon, who was just a country bumpkin, what amazed him was the scene and the existence of the room. He lacked awareness of such sophisticated knowledge.

Thus, the question that came to his mind—

"Um, teacher, what about the shower water, is it Echo or product?"

Samuel’s eyes twitched. It looked like he was being assaulted. "Has the water attacked you?"

Now that he mentioned it—

The water didn’t. It went, scrubbing everything off his body.

He wanted to ask about that as well, but Samuel’s face wasn’t very... welcoming.

"Sit there. Strip everything you’re wearing," Samuel instructed Moon, pointing at the small platform, before turning his head to Uon. "You get out." ƒreewebɳovel.com

"What do you mean strip?"

"No, teacher, please, I want to watch."

"Watch what?"

"These insane arcane circles in action!"

"Oh. I thought..." Moon said, clutching his chest protectively. freёweɓnovel.com

But Teacher Samuel didn’t have that much patience to waste on the two of them.

He first kicked Uon way to elegantly for it to be called a kick, sending him flying out like a ball.

The door closed instantly.

He looked Moon in the eye. "I will not force you. The choice is yours."

He raised his thumb. "Your first choice, get out now, learn nothing, and stay without Echo till maybe a miracle happens."

He raised his index finger. "Keep the clothes on," His eyes sharpened "The only thing hiding your abnormality, and let them turn to dust here in exchange for sensing echo."

He raised his middle finger and spoke a single word. "Strip."

Moon opened his mouth slightly, stunned. ’So, he knew.’

His worldview, and the way he saw the man in front of him, who didn’t look anything special but did whatever he desired without a care, changed.

’The clothes can self-repair, but if completely destroyed... would there be anything to repair at all?’ Moon asked himself, not feeling pressured nor rushed by the situation.

He realized how thorough Samuel was with every word he spoke.

’No wonder Uon idolizes this grumpy uncle too much.’ He let out a pent-up breath before nodding.

"Right, thank you." Moon was grateful, this was an easy to make choice.

’I really want to ask if he can hide it, the death echo, from outsiders from here.’ He thought, knowing too well this was meaningless to ask.

This man was not someone who did things randomly or on a whim. He only acted with unwavering certainty.

Fate Alert didn’t warn him, so he was not in threatening danger.

"Why are you helping me?" Moon couldn’t not ask this at least, so he voiced his question while taking off his shirt.

Samuel didn’t answer, nor did the look in his eyes change.

He walked around the room, one circle after another, doing something Moon couldn’t understand, but he didn’t ask.

If that was an enemy, there was no stopping him. And if he was a friend, it was a blessing he couldn’t refuse.

Maybe this was the first stage in acquiring a backing and belonging somewhere, or so he desired in his heart.

"The power output was adjusted. You will get hit by pure echo-producing arcane. It won’t threaten your life, but be prepared for a good round of beating."