Chapter 327: Treasure-Filled Solar Systems?

Far behind Uhtred, Elion Silverwood also stood up from his meditative pose — clearly in assent with Uhtred’s words. The elf’s prideful nature made it such that he could never leave here without giving Awakened Otis something in return.

Awakened Otis said nothing for a while. He simply stared into the distant horizon watching the sun rise, then abruptly, he turned to Uhtred, holding up two simple shards that had materialized out of nowhere.

"Memory shards?" Uhtred raised a brow, cautious. He’d passed Floor 2 without falling for the Heavenly Demon’s trap. He wasn’t about to fall for something similar here on Floor 3.

"Just as I have saved your lives, you will also do me a great favor," Awakened Otis suddenly said. He looked pointedly at Uhtred, but also at Elion Silverwood, who had walked over too. "Within these shards are records of my clan — the few Solar Systems my clan controlled, and the Star System in which you can find them..."

Uhtred’s eyes immediately narrowed. Suddenly, the value of those shards shot up exponentially in his mind. Just from Awakened Otis’ opening words, he could already tell where the Awakened Realm powerhouse was headed with his request.

"...When either of you grows powerful enough, after your world opens up to the Grand Multiverse, I want you to travel to the location within these two shards," Awakened Otis said, his voice turning uncharacteristically shaky and filled with emotion. "I want you to confirm whether... any of my kin remain. If they do, there’s a message within the shards. Give that message to them."

"...And if none of them remain?" Elion Silverwood asked calmly from the side — a question Uhtred himself was just about to ask.

Awakened Otis let out a dry, humorless chuckle, his eyes distant and melancholic. "Well, if none of my kin remain, then you may scour the ruins of our Solar Systems as you please. Of what use are inheritances and ancient treasures to the dead...?"

He let out a weary sigh.

"As I said, contained within the shards is also detailed intelligence regarding my clan’s territory. You will learn where to go, where to avoid, and what not to touch. Otherwise, in your greed to plunder treasures, you will simply end up dead."

Now that he had revealed his motive for helping them, Awakened Otis waited. He could see several questions behind both Uhtred and Elion Silverwood’s eyes — calculations, analysis, suspicions about who exactly Awakened Otis was and why he was here.

If what he’d just said was true — that there was a possible chance for his clan and kin to still be alive in the current era — then it would mean Awakened Otis himself couldn’t be from this early sixth era of the Scenario. His presence here would be an anomaly...

So who then was he?

A survivor who had somehow endured from the sixth era into the seventh? Or a seventh-era ascender who had somehow become trapped inside the Tower? Was it even possible to get trapped here?

Uhtred opened his mouth to ask Awakened Otis directly. Why speculate when the source was standing right in front of him?

However, just as he voiced the beginnings of his question, the world around him slowed down, coming to an abrupt halt.

[Warning!]

[Champion Uhtred, you are about to violate the System-enforced Oath of Secrecy!]

[This is an automated Tower warning. Unless in a sub-scenario, protection of hidden Tower secrets falls upon you, the Champion]

[Champion Uhtred, you have (2) warning strikes left. Violation of the Oath of Secrecy will result in dire consequences...]

The world snapped back into motion, and with it, Uhtred’s question that had been stopped mid-sentence.

He bit his tongue immediately before he could speak anymore, his eyes wide.

His gaze darted sharply between Awakened Otis, who had a knowing look on his face, and Elion Silverwood, who looked confused and curious at the same time.

Meanwhile, Uhtred’s mind was moving at a mile a minute.

What the fuck was that warning? Revealing Tower secrets? How is asking Awakened Otis about his origins violating the Oath of Secrecy?

More importantly, who am I even revealing secrets to? There’s only—

Uhtred’s internal train of thought froze as a sharp realization struck him.

My chat? The Tower doesn’t want me revealing information about Awakened Otis to my multiversal viewers?

It was confusing at first, but then the more he thought about it, the more it made sense.

First, during the sub-scenario back in Floor 2, the System had turned off his and every champion’s multiversal streams — that was a major sign that the multiversal viewers weren’t meant to be privy to those secrets.

Taking that realization further, instead of using memory shards, Awakened Otis himself could have spoken the location of his clan directly, but he didn’t.

Of course, this could simply be attributed to the fact that some people watching could simply go there immediately and plunder those Solar Systems themselves, regardless of whether his kin were still alive or not — Uhtred had reasoned that this was his motive at first. But it seemed that wasn’t the whole picture.

Awakened Otis simply couldn’t tell them directly even if he wanted to. And that was because of the multiversal audience.

Which means, among those multiversal entities, there are those who don’t know about Tower secrets... like the existence of sub-scenarios?

It was a crazy thought. One would think information about the Tower would have spread out in the multiverse by now — nitty gritty details about every Floor and what billions upon billions of preceding champions had faced. But it would seem the Tower had a tight lock on such information.

Otherwise, every world out in the multiverse would have figured out how to climb up the Tower easily by now...

It aligned with something else that Uhtred had also noticed. Among his 10,000 Multiversal subscribers, there were only about 9,200 who were active and watching at any given time.

At first, he thought those slots had simply been sold to powerful entities who had chosen to remain silent the whole time, but now a new idea had formed in his mind:

Perhaps it was tied to the fact that he had moved to Floor 3. The 800-odd subscribers who had suddenly disappeared could not watch his Floor 3 climb because they never made it to Floor 3 during their own climb up the Tower.

Following that logic, Floor 4 would likely see another reduction, the same for Floor 5 and the higher floors, if Uhtred made it that far.

Uhtred couldn’t be certain yet. He would need to ascend to Floor 4 to confirm his theory, but it made logical sense and aligned with the information lock the Tower had in place.

Refocusing on the present, seeing the automated warning pop up actually relieved much of Uhtred’s remaining paranoia regarding the shards.

To an extent, he felt assured that there wasn’t some hidden trap to those shards. They were memory shards, after all. He didn’t want a situation where he would inherit some weird consciousness of an Awakened Realm entity.

Still, just to be safe, Uhtred decided that he wasn’t going to use the shard until he reached the Awakened Realm himself. That way, even if there was some hidden trap in the memory shard, he would be able to fight back as someone of a similar cultivation base.

Not to mention, assimilating the shard now served no benefit. There was still well over three years before the buffer period ended and he could travel to the solar systems in question.

Deftly, he reached forward and collected his own shard, same as Elion Silverwood.

Uhtred had many questions, but he held them and simply nodded at Awakened Otis. He recognized the opportunity that had just been given to him. Of course, it came with danger — serious danger, in fact — but with enough preparation and cautiousness, it could be a great boon that would aid him significantly in the future.

.

.

About an hour or so later, Uhtred and Elion Silverwood finally left the mountain. By then, the beast wave had subsided significantly. The population of beasts moving through the forests was still higher than usual, but nothing Uhtred and Elion Silverwood couldn’t deal with alone.

On their way down the mountain, Uhtred couldn’t help but keep thinking about Awakened Otis. He now leaned more towards the idea that the Awakened Realm powerhouse was stuck here in this Tower — a chilling thought that made him even more vigilant.

He remembered the warning that had been given by the System after he almost revealed some Tower Secrets:

[Violation of the Oath of Secrecy will result in dire consequences...]

Perhaps getting stuck here and becoming part of the scenario world is one of those consequences, Uhtred thought grimly.

He shook the thoughts away, consciously becoming more mindful, but no longer willing to dwell on such thoughts. Instead, he focused on the elf traveling next to him.

Elion Silverwood.

They’d not even traveled far from the mountain before Elion switched back to his natural prideful demeanor. Without preamble, he’d suddenly began talking about the shard given to him — about how he "already had a powerful Sponsor" and how he "was a noble elf and not an errand boy."

Specifically, he scoffed at the potential inheritance that could be gained, stating that he had no need for any of it.

This motherfucker, Uhtred thought coldly, realizing Elion’s motive. He had to admit that the elf was actually smart...

Elion had clearly realized now that they were alone, that Uhtred would reveal what he wanted in exchange for another duel — a price which was sure to be very steep.

So instead of waiting, he decided to be proactive. He was basically putting up his own memory shard in exchange for the duel. No matter how black-hearted Uhtred was, there was no way he would demand anything else in the face of such a heavy price.

Now, Uhtred was stuck between two crossroads...

Which was more valuable? Forcing Elion to teach him his Stellar Heat and Radiation magic — two extremely powerful and versatile spells that would add significant firepower to his arsenal? Or taking a risk to secure the second memory shard — which could either grant him sole ownership over several Solar Systems worth of resources and inheritances, or turn him into an underpaid messenger for a clan that was still living and thriving?