Chapter 43: Floor Ascension!

Chapter 43: Floor Ascension! "... You managed to beat him with 8 seconds left on the timer; that’s..." The tower spirit didn’t know if she should break the news to Ken or not. "The rating should be based on how much time it takes for me to defeat my enemy, right?" He asked. "Yes, heavily. Thus, it’s better if you take care of them as fast as possible." She said. "Does rating really matter in the floors?" Ken then asked while his eyes gazed at the two enemies who showed up in front of him. Two knights, the same one who was defeated the previous round, who seemed like he couldn’t understand what was happening, and another one who was looking warily at Ken. "Well, if you manage to beat the 1st place floor, then it would be good, but it’s should be hard... maybe." The spirit changed her mind as she looked at Ken. She knew common sense didn’t work on him. "That isn’t what I asked." Ken said with a soft smile. "Ah... Uhm, well, rating is always good, but your reward is mostly based on the time you took the floors and your final floor before you were defeated." She said. "In this case even rating should be based on that." "Yes, but no disciple would possibly be able to reach the floor needed to get SSS-rank, so to compensate for that, they’re asked to take as little time with the weaker floors as possible. Most take a minute at least." She said. "That’s not a problem. So what floor should I aim for?" He asked. "Uh... Defeat the 5th to get S-rank, and defeat the 10th to get SSS-rank." She said. "Doing that any time within your first year is acceptable." she added after a slight silence. "What if I achieve a higher ranking?" Ken then asked the most important question. Was there anything higher than SSS-rank? "That shouldn’t be possible." The tower spirit shook her head. "Each time you take the floors, you start from the 1st floor, and technically speaking, each floor has its own reward for defeating it that you only get once, aside from the 5th, 10th, and so on, where you get a lesser reward each time." She started explaining. "And the rewards also significantly differ depending on the time you took them since the opening of the tower." "So, in essence, if you manage to reach the 10th floor this time, you’ll be eligible for a crazy amount of rewards. Just in terms of spirit stones and pills, it should be multiple times what you got in the trial." "And doing so in one fell swoop is what gets you the SSS-rank. But, the difficulty spikes after every five floors; it takes years for students to defeat the 10th-floor boss, not to mention the 11th or even worse, the 15th." She said. "By then, you’ll be fighting late-stage qi-refining spirits." She added, her voice heavy. Not even Ken would be able to defeat them with his current strength, she deduced. It wasn’t just their realm and their fighting power, but the fact that they weren’t human was even more fearsome. Because they were fully fledged late-qi refining realm spirits, their techniques were also up to par. In essence, reaching the 10th floor was harder than getting SSS-rank in the 1st trial. So it was not to talk about anything higher. "Though if you somehow manage to do it, the rating wouldn’t change from SSS, but your rewards..." She didn’t continue; she didn’t have to. The sheer amount and quality of rewards Ken would be getting would make even the sect leader notice. And once he did... Ken only nodded after this and got ready for another round against spirits, knowing that he necessarily had to take his enemies down. He was going to get himself used to fighting even more, but these spirits were still not up to par yet; he’ll only train his movement for now. Looking up, Ken saw the figures of the spirits. Due to the conversation between him and the tower spirit, the battle had yet to start, and while the knight who had fought with Ken and started building some respect for him was waiting patiently, the other one was getting seriously nervous. He had seen how the 1st floor had gone, and he seriously didn’t want to be beaten up like that. "Alright, we spoke long enough; it’s time to start the 2nd floor battle." The tower spirit spoke, and even she began to feel like she was talking too much. Ken saw the enemies get ready for battle, and he smiled. Two of them at once? This should make things interesting enough. "3, 2, 1... Start!" *Fwsh* Before the warriors could even decide if they should take the first step or not, Ken was already in front of them. "Don’t forget that I’m your enemy... I won’t always be waiting for you." Putting his hands on both of the warrior spirits’ shoulders. One second they were looking at him, and the next... their legs were in the sky. *Thump* *Thump* One way or another, Ken had swept them off their feet, and with movements they couldn’t even begin to comprehend, they were launched away from him. "Get serious, focus on the fight, and come at me with everything you have!" He looked at them one by one as he spoke. Ken right now... Didn’t have the demeanor of a twenty-year-old individual just starting his cultivation journey... He was more like a master of combat, one who has seen everything. The warriors tensed up; the first to get up was the one Ken fought on the first floor, and without thinking any longer, he got into his improvised stance and launched himself at Ken. As all of this happened, the tower spirit, who was yet to physically show up, watched the fight with fervor before a request got her out of her state. A command has come from not one, not two, but multiple official disciples and elders, both outer and inner sect ones, requesting to watch Ken’s floor ascension. Hearing this and knowing she couldn’t refuse, she only accepted and hoped the best for Ken, whatever his illusory plans were. ------End------