Return of the Woodcutter

Aito was too greedy. If any moderators knew what was going on in his mind, they would laugh at his greediness to grow more powerful despite being in the process of already leveling up. 

Thus, Aito started to resolve himself to the inevitable. To accept his own powerlessness in front of the adversity, and relied again on his most trusted weapon, his wit that was telling him he couldn't make it out alive without any real substantial power. 

Something a common level up will never be able to provide.

Despite that, he searched for a possible way out of this mess and again came across Ogoro's blurry eyes. In those, he could see himself, even with the distance. Contemplating his failure to keep his word, and feeling Ogoro's current strongest emotion, the black challenger himself started to be swept by despair. 

***

A few moments ago. 

While challengers died every minute, Allan watched the gory scene from above. Blood, guts, death, and despair were something he was already highly accustomed to. 

In Blitz, the fortress he fought in, men died at every turn. Each time Fearmongers attacked the great fortress, death was inevitable. 

Having survived until now was already a blessing. That's one of the reasons the Tower moderators were "supposed" to be harsh on challengers.

Humans from Earth were weak by nature. However, in them hid the potential to quickly adapt and overcome their limits. 

That was the potential moderators were in charge of drawing out of them.

If challengers couldn't survive the Tower, then there was no need to exit it in the first place. Their wills would only crumble, for Iris was a place no common mortals could step in without wetting their pants. 

Certainly, there were some peaceful areas in Iris, Central the Silver City was one of them. But that was only because people were sacrificing their lives to keep them safe from harm! 

Fearmongers were the main threat the churches had to deal with, but not the only ones. 

Danger existed all over Iris.

Bandits roamed the roads in search of people to ambush and rob. 

Sky Pirates loomed over the most frequented airways, taking unprepared flying vessels by surprise. 

Beasts lurked in the woods, beneath the earth, on the surface, and even in the air. A few of them were capable of rivaling even Legends. And there were some rumors of those being at the demigod level!

Races revolting against the gods' rules pillaged temples and churches alike, depriving them of their riches. Sometimes planning small skirmishes to undermine the gods. However, for some reason, they never killed innocent people.

Those were essentially what soldiers, beast hunters, and a few so-called "adventurers" had to deal with. 

But most of the soldiers were busy fighting an unwinnable war that's been waged for such a long time only a rare few recalled how, why, and when it started. So, it usually came down to beast hunters and "adventurers" to keep the order inside the safe zone.

Also, the gods might have turned all the physical money immaterial through the system's help, but there were still plenty of other treasures to steal! Metal, soul cores, artifacts, magical items, food, knowledge, etc.

All in all, most of the Tower's floors were child's play compared to the real despair awaiting outside. 

Iris was for the strong and powerful… at least when you were a pitiful mortal with a bomb in your soul threatening to explode at any given sign of disobeying the gods' orders. 

However, even if Allan wanted to prepare challengers for Iris—and watching a good show—he started to regret his decision to activate the Lunar Eclipse.

Flying atop the cathedral, Allan could feel the souls waning, agonizing, and eventually turning almost silent as they lost their physical bodies, remaining in the material plane in the forms of small round cores.

The moderator had spread his soul wave to the entire cathedral, focusing all his attention on it as to not miss out on one single moment of the show. 

At such a "short" distance and with his capabilities, despite the fact that he could not see everything that was happening, he could interpret the signals to the point he could picture it as if it was in front of him! 

It was an ability that one would gain most of the time after becoming an Ascender. Not taking into account the other one, it was THE requirement to become an Ascender. 

That's the main reason behind the bottleneck. 

Apart from level 0 living beings, everyone was capable of acquiring a Domain. That was possible, but only a selected few had done so. Even amongst black challengers, around half of them had been able to do so.

Usually, once they reached level 2, challengers would ask the gods for help to reach level 3 because it was too difficult to do it on their own. In exchange for glory points, the gods were more than happy to provide that said help. 

Those that tried to do it alone, died almost always miserably. Because to develop a Domain, one had to first be able to sense the immaterial world. Which, at first, always required to be in a rare state in between life and death where the barrier between the body and the soul was at its weakest. 

A trance of sorts.

Only after that would a challenger be able to communicate with their own souls. 

Even then, success wasn't guaranteed. One must have an unbendable will and also a means to heal oneself, if not… well, like Allan liked to say, "it is game over."

Allan sighed, "Shit…, I think I overdid it this time. Even the black challenger is bleeding to death. Why did he even try to digest that level 2 soul in the first place? That's reckless!" 

He could feel from where he stood up in the air that the ninja's soul had been on the verge of breaking through to level 3. A near level 3 soul against a level 1 would always win. 

Always, or so it was commonly acknowledged.

Attempting to absorb a weak level 2 soul as a level 1 challenger was painful but possible, though.

With enough time, and human souls, the Tower system would have naturally helped the ninja level up.

"Well… at least the black challenger reset the power balance on this floor, I suppose. No level 3 ninja will hunt other challengers in the coming weeks. Still… it feels wrong seeing all of them dying. And surely I'm gonna get an earful from Tonton because of that huge loss of potential elite soldiers." 

For a very long time, the Lunar Eclipse event had remained where it belonged, meaning nowhere. 

Moderators of the fifth floor knew about it in theory, but none alive—him—has ever experienced it firsthand. Previous ones had never dared activate it either.

Past fifth floor moderators now dead today, had warned the next generation that such an event would never benefit them, even if the gods needed capable people. 

Allan had never really taken this warning seriously, moreover, it was his first time here. His predecessor had recently died, leaving an empty spot. 

Considered an extremely gifted human because of reaching the Awakened realm much sooner than most, now on the verge to Transcend, and having distinguished himself on the battlefield, he had been rewarded with the job.

Gazing upon slightly less than two hundred human corpses, the hobgoblins enjoying their kills, savoring some women being raped in some bloody corners, and at the very least two thousand more of those things waiting outside the cathedral… now Allan understood why. 

It was a death sentence that even a properly trained level 3 Ascender would find hard to escape from. 

The worst thing was, he couldn't stop the event despite wanting to. In the possibility he was able to, the hobs would never return empty-handed from their hunt.

"What have I done?" He said, hesitating to save those that were still alive. It would go against the rules, but… he couldn't just stand here, and watch possible elite soldiers die because of his own incomprehension. 

Even more in this batch than any others. The front lines would be in dire need of more elites soon.

Turns out, most challengers that survived until the end made for quite the fighters with potential for growth. Of course, the higher the floor they had reached, the stronger they were.

At that moment, Allan frowned, sensing an anomaly in one of the dying souls that was pulsing stronger and stronger at an incredibly fast rate. It was just like a dying phoenix on the verge of reviving. 

"A level up? In this time and place? What kind of madman would try to do this in the midst of a fight?" 

Absorbing souls took time, after all. One needed to digest the accumulated energy properly, absorbing it too fast and too much would result in bloating and shattering. Moreover, fighting while still digesting could cause interferences in the soul force and thus impede the use of aura—for challengers.

That's why challengers either avoided doing it during fights or just absorbed a tiny quantity of soul cores to render the negative effect almost inexistent.

However, it didn't mean there was no exception to this rule. If the circumstances were met, that is. 

Allan focused his attention on the source of this anomaly until he felt a foreign soul wave crossing his, akin to a pair of ethereal eyes observing him. 

"What the fuck!?"

Alarmed, the moderator quickly masked his Domain more by instinct than by need, something gained after fighting countless battles. 

Then he rapidly scanned the whole floor, with no threat detected, his gaze returned on the peculiar soul, and only then did he understand what just happened, though he hardly believed it.

"No way….," Allan said, his jaw stretched to its very limits, threatening to fall. "That Domain…. but he was only level 1. Wait, wait, wait… even a Domain doesn't justify that ridiculous power…"

Although he said that, a possibility flashed through his mind. He had heard of it very rarely happening before, even fewer times than level 1 challengers acquiring Domains on their own. 

"He… but that's…." 

However, to his knowledge, it wasn't theoretically impossible, just undoable by most. Amongst famous past challengers—black, red, blue, or white—only a handful had done such a ridiculous thing.

"That's… that's…"

Allan's body trembled uncontrollably. Shivers of excitement ran down his spine as the otaku in him rose from a dusty corner of his personality. He took out some dried indigos, his favorite treat, and started rapidly stuffing them in his mouth one after the other. 

"CHWAT'S MARWELEWS!" (That's marvelous) He exclaimed, saliva and pieces of dried indigo escaping his mouth.