32 The Frailty of Life

If not for the Akashic System displaying the time and the number of days that had passed, Linnaeus would not have been able to determine how long he had been in his current state.

Not only had night become a permanant fixture on the Third Floor, but the temperature continued its steady decline to almost incomprehensible levels. Now, if he failed to replace his [Barrier] before the previous one ran out, it was like having a bucket of the coldest imaginable water wash over him, chilling him to the bone and causing a painful ache throughout his entire body.

Linnaeus genuinely believed he would have lost his sense of self if not for the constant notifications from the system. The cold gave him an overwhelming urge to simply fall asleep and accept the chill completely. If not for the period pings of experience indicating growth in his [Pain Tolerance] and [Cold Resistance], Linnaeus would have already given in to the encroaching darkness.

At this point, Linnaeus knew that his outburst and decision to leave the cave had been exceptionally foolish but, as his impending death made his resolution stronger, he took solace in the thought that his final interaction with another person was standing his ground. He didn't know if there was such a thing as life after death or reincarnation but, if there was, Linnaeus swore he would try harder in his next life...if possible, he would like to be reborn as someone inside the megacity and, if fate allowed it, he wanted to be able to protect his sister once again...

These were the last thoughts that crossed Linnaeus' mind as, in spite of the gentle bells sounding in his mind, the encroaching darkness finally overpowered his will to remain awake. It was already the afternoon of the nineteenth day so he had been fighting against his body freezing completely for the better part of three days...

---

Due to having created an underground den with a curved chute for an entrance, one of the survival techniques she had learned, Ryuuna was faring much better than Linnaeus. Though it was still very cold, warm air was less dense than cold air so, by creating a den where the hot air couldn't easily escape through the chute, she was able to gradually heat up the interior to just above freezing. As a result, the interior was very damp, causing a cloud of humidity to be present as Ryuuna did her best to move her body periodically to further warm her small abode.

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Over the last few days, Ryuuna's biggest stress factor had been her hunger but, as her body could process raw meat without too many detrimental effects, she had managed to survive, albeit with a perpetual grimace on her face. Though she had also reflected on her past interactions with Linnaeus, she refused to believe she was in the wrong as just the thought of apologizing to him made her feel nauseous.

Currently, Ryuun had a piece of venison in her mouth as she tugged at the durable tendons in an effort to extricate the piece of flesh for consumption. It had a foul and gamey taste but, compared to starving, it was the more tolerable alternative.

Just as she managed to tear away the piece of flesh, Ryuuna's expression turned blank as her mouth hung slightly agape. The piece of meat she had struggled to pull away fell to the ground as, in the periphery of her vision, something that had been present for nearly three weeks had now vanished. At the same time, the number of Fledglings on the Floor dropped from 5 down to 4, causing Ryuuna to pause for several seconds in abject confusion.

When she finally realized the implications of what had happened, Ryuuna began to feel very anxious as she erupted from the ground like a geyser and bolted toward the east. Linnaeus hadn't moved at all for the last few days so she had approximated his position and knew roughly how long it would be able to reach him.

Ryuuna had been intending to let Linnaeus suffer for a bit before showing up when he was near death to save him. With his name suddenly disappearing from the Party, she began to feel more anxious than she had expected, causing her to move like a golden meteor through the blizzard that had descended upon the land...

After nearly two hours of running at her highest speed, Ryuun reached a large canyon that seemed to extend downward indefinitely. She had no way of knowing that Linnaeus had holed himself up in a hollow at the side of the cliff so Ryuuna released a feral cry before shouting, "You stupid piece of shit! Did you really throw yourself off the cliff just to spite me!? You...you...you...!"

For Linnaeus' name to vanish from the Party without his health being anywhere near critical levels, Ryuuna could only assume he had died instantly. If he threw himself off the cliff and didn't try to protect himself, the only fate that awaited him was death.

Feeling anxiety and anger unlike anything she had ever experienced, Ryuuna began tearing apart the landscape, uprooting trees and destroying boulders. She had spent the last few days thinking about how to get even with Linnaeus but, despite her initial anger, she never intended to torture or kill him. His growth and earnest mentality made him one of the few people she could reasonably trust in the Tower so, until they reached the 10th Floor, she had intended to remain in the same Party.

Before she realized it, Ryuuna's vision had been obscured by a layer of tears that turned into small ice crystals dotting her eyelashes. Her Health had also started to reduce considerably from overusing her Blessing so, after punching a large boulder with enough force to fracture it into several hundred pieces, she turned her head skyward and said, "I give up...take me to the next Floor..."

If Linnaeus had been present, he would have noticed that the fierce light in Ryuuna's eyes had all but vanished at this point. Her golden irises now look pale and dull, much like some of the less fortunate women he had encountered in the slums. Then, as if she had never existed from the start, Ryuuna's body vanished like a fading afterimage. The only thing that remained to indicate her presence was a massive section of upturned forest and several fractured boulders...

---

With Ryuuna's departure from the Third Floor, the remaining three Fledglings received a notice from the Floor Guardian that they were the last Party. Their Party consisted of a large man with a muscular body and two comparably smaller females. They had holed themselves up in a cave but, rather than sealing it, they left the mouth of the cave open while unhesitantly maintaining a small bonfire. This wasn't enough to stave off the entirety of the cold, however, so, when they were resting, the trio had used each others' body heat to stay warm.

After receiving the notification, the man released a loud bellow before laughing enthusiastically. As for the two girls, the younger of the two rolled her eyes while her older, far more mature companion, decided to join the burly man by releasing a peal of bell-like laughter. Then, much like Ryuuna, they also moved on the Fourth Floor after accepting their rewards from the Floor Guardian.

The moment the final Party had left, a rather magical sight began to play out on the Third Floor as the snowfall began to literally reverse, much like the flames from the bonfire. As if time itself was flowing in reverse, the logs began to lose their charred state before the fire ultimately extinguished, leaving behind green tender that, shortly thereafter, vanished.

Several hundred kilometers away from the cave, in the area previously devasted by Ryuuna, the innocent boulders quickly reformed while the uprooted trees once again found purchase in the permafrost. As time passed, this process seemed to speed up considerably until, less than an hour later, the light of day had returned to the Third Floor. With it, lush greenery once again dominated the terrain as, at several locations throughout the forest, blobs of pure energy began to coalesce before solidifying into the shape of Goblins, Slimes, Horned Rabbits, and Tyrant Mountain Bears.

Following the formation of the monsters, each corpse belonging to a fallen Fledgling began to dissolve away into dust. Immediately after they faded away, all signs of their existence faded along with them, including supplies and equipment that had been left behind. Then, as the final part of this process, a total of 519 ripples appeared at various locations throughout the Third Floor before a new group of Fledglings began their survival challenge.

Regardless of how much damage the Floors sustained, it would always be completely undone at the end of each challenge. This was known simply as a Reset, an Administrative Function that only those with the title of Floor Guardian had the authority to carry out.

To prevent people from staying in the Tower indefinitely, building a civilization and limiting the chances other Fledglings would prosper, a Reset would periodically be conducted on even the safe Floors. Though the cycle varied for each Floor, with the 10th taking place every 1,000 years, it still forced those who wanted to consolidate power to move toward progressively higher Floors to avoid being 'erased' during the Reset. Only by passing through one of the connecting Floors was a person able to avoid the process of being annihilated and, after a Reset, they were unable to backtrack from that moment onward.

Nobody knew exactly what happened if your body was erased during a reset but it was commonly believed that you were absorbed by the Tower as nutrients. There was even a prominent faction that believed the Tower was a living organism that baited people into its body with the promise of power. They believed the Tower refined its prey, granting them unbelievable power in order to make them taste better. Though this seemed outlandish, the fact that nobody had ever managed to reach the top had allowed them to build a sizeable faction among those naturally born within the Tower.

As for what really happened when a person died within the Tower, this largely depended on a variety of different factors. If they died as a result of combat, implying their body had been destroyed or, at the very least, damaged beyond repair, they would, in fact, become nutrients for the Tower. It would absorb their Souls into itself, refining the excess energy and destroying the Ego of the person. This would erase everything that represented a person, including their name, memories, status, and even Blessing. After the fact, their Soul would be expelled from the Tower, allowing it to wander aimlessly until finding a new vessel in the form of a developing zygote.

This was not the only outcome for a person who had died within the Tower, however, as there were sometimes extenuating circumstances and unique situations that led to a person's death. In most of these situations, the Floor Guardians themselves had made some kind of mistake while, in the less likely scenario, the person had died as a result of an unforeseen variable. Since the Creator of the Tower had documented an incalculable number of anomalies over the course of endless eternities, they had implemented a system where a person could redeem themselves if their willpower and fate were strong enough.

Though most people knew of the Tower that pierced into the Heavens, extending far beyond any means of observation, only the Guardians knew of the second Tower that descended deep into the planar world. While the former was known as the Tower of Heaven, the latter was known as the Crucible of Souls, a place where those who had lost their lives due to unexpected circumstances had a second chance at life. It was the dominion of Tenebrae, the Lord of Darkness, one of the principal entities that governed the Tower.

Unlike the scenic environments found in the Tower of Heaven, the Crucible of Souls was a dark and chaotic domain where only pain and suffering awaited those fighting for a second chance at life. It was a hellish place that few could survive for more than a week, while even fewer would ever be able to rise up and begin their climb anew. Though it only had eight Floors in total, each would test the willpower of its challengers to the limit. After all, without the proper conviction, you simply did not deserve a second chance at life.

It was here, in a dark abyss filled with fire and brimstone, the Crucible of Souls' Eighth Floor, that a frail figure with pale-blue hair slammed hard into the ground. Their body, covered in a layer of ice, began to thaw rapidly as a pained groan escaped their pale lips. At the same time, their hair began to lose its color, turning progressively whiter until it was almost indiscernible from its former color. Then, after tears of blood poured from their closed eyes, the figure awoke with a start, eyes glimmering like red rubies as their lungs strained desperately to draw in foul and pungent air...