Chapter 296: Arthur Admits It Himself, He’s Faster Than I Was!

Outside the Heaven Reaching Trial Tower, Zich’s name remained at the highest position on the monument.

[First Place: Zich Grave, Sixteenth Floor.]

Arthur stood before the black stone monument, his gaze fixed upon the dark-gold lettering.

With the president of the Players Association personally present, the number of people gathered nearby continued to increase. The Human Alliance and the Five Great Families, which had originally sent ordinary observers, had also dispatched higher-ranking representatives after receiving successive reports.

Everyone wanted to confirm the same thing.

How long could the sixteen-year-old who had already entered the Sixteenth Floor maintain his advancement speed?

Inside the Sixteenth Floor, Zich had no knowledge of the attention gathering outside.

Once the trial began, he followed the combat habits developed across the previous floors. Iron and the Silverback Ape Grunt bore the pressure at the front, the four Undead Skeleton Soldiers executed separate commands, and Slimy remained where it could reinforce any section of the formation.

The enemies on this floor attacked in staggered waves from passages surrounding a circular platform.

Zich did not allow the summons to chase them individually.

Iron guarded the central approach, using the reach of its bone greatsword to prevent the heaviest enemies from breaking through. The Silverback Ape Grunt shifted repeatedly between the two flanks, intercepting anything that attempted to bypass Iron, while the Undead Skeleton Soldiers marked each passage by maintaining different distances from the platform.

Whenever an enemy disappeared into one corridor and attempted to emerge from another, the movement of the nearest Skeleton warned Zich before the attack arrived.

Slimy’s Silk Barrier did not cover the entire formation. Instead, Slimy reinforced only the point under the greatest pressure, withdrawing the barrier as soon as the immediate attack ended so that its strength was not wasted.

Zich preserved his Spirit Bombs while the formation remained stable.

Only when the final wave entered through three passages simultaneously did he retrieve one from the Graveyard. Iron and the Silverback Ape Grunt compressed the advancing enemies toward the center, and the four Undead Skeleton Soldiers withdrew along predetermined paths.

Zich carried the Spirit Bomb across the platform with Shadow Blink, dropped it behind the enemy line, and moved beyond the blast radius.

Boom!

After that explosion not long after the portal leading to the Seventeenth Floor appeared immediately afterward.

Outside, the monument displayed the result.

[First Place: Zich Grave, Seventeenth Floor.]

Several figures who had only just arrived immediately looked toward the Players Association’s recorder, but Arthur did not ask for the newest interval.

He already understood the comparison.

Twenty years ago, Arthur had occupied first place from the early stages onward, leaving most challengers of his generation behind before eventually establishing the highest record in the Heaven Reaching Trial Tower.

At the same stage, however, Zich had reached the Seventeenth Floor faster.

The Seventeenth Floor did not delay Zich for long.

The trial space was filled with moving stone walls that constantly divided his formation. Instead of repeatedly forcing his way through them, Zich placed the Undead Skeleton Soldiers at separate junctions and tracked the walls through their contracts. Iron and the Silverback Ape Grunt waited until two passages aligned, then advanced together rather than allowing the trial to isolate them.

Some time later...

[First Place: Zich Grave, Eighteenth Floor.]

The Eighteenth Floor demanded a different approach.

[First Place: Zich Grave, Nineteenth Floor.]

By now the discussions across the plaza had become increasingly subdued.

No one knew what trials Zich was encountering, but every recorded change confirmed that his pace remained consistent.

Inside the Nineteenth Floor, Zich found himself crossing a long battlefield beneath a continuous rain of magical attacks.

The four Undead Skeleton Soldiers moved ahead in a staggered pattern, drawing fire and revealing where each descending strike would land. Iron used the flat of its bone greatsword to deflect attacks that threatened the formation, while Slimy formed angled Silk Barriers that redirected rather than directly absorbed the falling energy.

The Silverback Ape Grunt stayed close to Zich until an enemy rushed from the side, then activated Intercept and struck it away from the protected route.

When the density of attacks became too great for the formation to cross safely, Zich retrieved a Spirit Bomb, carried it through two successive uses of Shadow Blink, and threw it into the elevated structure directing the bombardment.

Black-blue energy burst across the ceiling.

The rain of attacks ceased, leaving Iron and the Silverback Ape Grunt free to break through the final defenders.

As the Nineteenth Floor trial neared its end, a representative from the Human Alliance finally looked toward Arthur.

"President Arthur, twenty years ago, when you reached these same floors, you weren’t this fast, were you?"

The surrounding conversations faded.

More gazes converged upon Arthur, and even the higher-ranking members of the Players Association waited for his response.

The question was direct, but Arthur did not avoid it.

Looking at Zich’s name, he answered calmly.

"No."

The Human Alliance representative visibly froze, apparently not expecting such an immediate admission.

Arthur continued, "If we compare only the cumulative speed at which we reached the same floors, then Zich Grave is faster than I was twenty years ago."

His answer spread rapidly through the plaza.

"But this is still only the Nineteenth Floor," another powerful figure said. "The later trials determine whether a challenger can truly approach the highest record. No one outside knows what he has encountered in those independent spaces."

"You’re right," Arthur replied. "Advancement speed does not represent the final result, and I have not said that he has surpassed my highest record."

"But reaching the same stages faster is still reaching them faster. That fact does not need to be diminished merely because the final result remains undecided."

At that moment, the dark-gold patterns on the monument moved.

[First Place: Zich Grave, Twentieth Floor.]

"He entered the Twentieth Floor!"

"He cleared nineteen floors already!"

Recorders bent over their documents, and the newly arrived representatives moved closer to the monument. The Twentieth Floor remained far from Arthur’s final achievement, but it was no longer a threshold that could be dismissed as a short-lived early advantage.

Arthur raised his head and looked toward the established historical display.

[First Place: Arthur]

[Highest Floor Reached: Thirtieth Floor]

[Highest Floor Cleared: Twenty Ninth Floor]

[Final Status: Challenge Failed]

[Record Set: Twenty Years Ago]

His record still stood untouched.

Zich had only entered the Twentieth Floor, and ten more floors separated him from the highest point Arthur had reached. Nothing that had happened so far guaranteed that he would cross that distance.

But for the first time in years, Arthur was looking at someone who appeared capable of becoming a credible challenger to his record.

Inside the Tower, the teleportation light faded and Zich stepped onto the Twentieth Floor.