Chapter 704 Climbing the Tower
Arriving at the base of the tower, Shiro could see quite a few people preparing themselves to climb up to the top while others had already started. There were even some that entered straight away as Shiro was curious as to what they saw.
However, once she remembered that the trial is different for everyone, she gave up on the idea.
Walking up, she lined herself at the end of the queue since barging forward would be quite rude and she didn't want to become a public enemy.
"Ay beautiful miss, you seem like you want to try the primordial trial." A young voice called out as Shiro glanced back to see a boy roughly 13 years in age.
"Mn I am indeed going to try the primordial trial. Is there something I should know?" Shiro asked curiously.
"Well I know some secret tricks and tools to help you climb higher. Do you want to know?" He offered with a smile.
"Mn… No, I'm fine. This lady here wants to see how far I can go without the help of tools." Shiro chuckled.
"Oh… well I can give you information on how to climb if you want." The boy offered another service as Shiro could detect some anxiousness in him.
Smiling softly, Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure if you want. How much will this cost?" She asked.
"Not much, just some bronze." The boy brightened up as Shiro nodded.
Reaching into her pouch, she grabbed a few silver coins. While she wanted to give him a gold coin, the moment some unsavoury fellows saw it on a kid, they might try to take it from him since he was quite weak.
Crouching down, she slid the coins into his pocket without anyone else noticing.
"Miss this i-"
Stopping him before he could say anything, Shiro chuckled.
"Shh… don't let anyone know ok? For a young lad like you to want to sell information so badly you must be needing money right?" Shiro patted his head as the boy paused for a moment before tearing up.
Nodding his head, he tried to suppress his cries while wiping his tears away.
"So take this money and be careful ok? Others might get jealous."
Giving the boy a moment to calm himself, Shiro continued to wait in the queue.
"Sorry about that miss." The boy apologised as his eyes were a little red around the edges from the crying.
"It's fine.Now why don't you tell me some of the information you know about climbing the tower?" Shiro chuckled.
"Mn, climbing up the tower, you can actually fly up for around a third to half of the way up depending on how strong you are. Those that are very powerful can possibly fly up to the midway point before their flying divinities are forcefully taken away.
"Once that happens, you'll need to attach yourself to the tower quickly so the best choice is to probably fly close to the side. The closer you are to the top, the more monsters there are. While they may not be as strong as some of the monsters that you've seen normally, their main goal is to distract you and make you waste stamina. Some might even try to drag you off forcefully so unless they start to grab at you, you probably should ignore them." The boy explained as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Oh? How do you know this?" Shiro asked curiously.
"I've been eavesdropping on a few conversations and I've manged to pick up on some of the key details." The boy replied with a smile.
"Impressive. Thanks for the information, take care out there ok?" Shiro chuckled as the boy nodded with a happy smile and jogged off.
"Good luck miss!" He called out.
Giving him a small wave, Shiro smiled softly at his direction before glancing back at the tower.
Narrowing her eyes towards the top, she wondered how long it'll take her to see the monsters.
With clouds in the way, she couldn't even see the middle section of the tower never mind the top.
Once she was at the front of the queue, Shiro stretched her body slightly before cracking her neck.
Crouching down, she cracked her neck and grinned.
*BANG!!!
Shooting up like a rocket, Shiro's body shot past a few that were climbing manually who started to curse at her since she almost caused them to fall.
Ignoring their cries, Shiro glanced back slightly and could see the city going further and further away.
Just as she was about to turn her attention back to the tower, she could feel a resistance slam into her.
Her flight speed was immediately slowed down as Shiro quickly adjusted herself and prepared to fly up once more.
While there is some resistance, it wasn't too bad as Shiro could still fly with a decent amount of speed.
However, after flying for a little longer with the clouds looking like they were not too far away, Shiro felt the resistance increase to the point where her flight was akin to a snail's crawl. Understanding that this was probably due to the fact that she only had one divinity and that her body hadn't been reinforced enough, Shiro summoned Nivlim and stabbed it against the side of the tower.
Making sure that it was jammed in properly, Shiro sat on her blade and furled her wings up.
Resting for a moment, Shiro looked down and saw that she was very high up at this point. The city was just a small splotch at this point but she knew that she was still nowhere near the top.
Shaking her head, she stood up on her sword and made sure she was in a comfortable climbing position before unsummoning Nivlim.
Climbing up, she could see a few people ahead of her who had sweat dripping from their heads.
The back of their clothes was soaked through by the sweat.
Some of them gave up and summoned the door while others continued.
Ignoring them, Shiro focused on finding good spots for her hands and feet since this was essentially a giant wall climb only with monsters and trials.
Continuing to climb at a steady pace, she managed to pass a few of the other climbs who were struggling over whether or not they should stop now. After all, they needed to save their stamina for the actual trial itself.
Reaching the clouds, Shiro furrowed her brows while her vision was obscured. Without her vision, she needed to take a lot longer to find a good spot to place her hands and feet.
Not only that, she could also feel a bunch of her muscles aching from the climb. Especially her back and shoulders.
Gritting her teeth, she summoned Nivlim and jammed it into the side of the wall.
While it was a little harder to jam it in properly this time, she was still able to do it thanks to the innate armour penetration.
Sitting on the sword, Shiro massaged her shoulders a little along with her parts of her body.
Since she hadn't used any items yet, the difficulty of the climb was still at its lowest. She was tempted to use some medicine to relieve the fatigue but doing so would just be sabotaging herself.
Resting for roughly 20 minutes, Shiro stood back up and resumed her climb.
Unlike others, she could give herself a small break every now and again thanks to her sword so she really couldn't complain.
Seeing her surroundings brighten up slightly, Shiro knew that she was close to leaving the clouds.
Mustering up some more power from within her, she managed to pull herself past the sea of clouds. Looking back, she shielded her eyes from the sun and saw a blanket of clouds that were clouded with an orange hue thanks to the sun. Looking up, she could see a few bird like monsters that circled around the tower.
Glancing past the monsters, she finally saw the top of the tower but with how far it was from her, Shiro wondered if she could even make it that far. It wasn't that she was giving up but with only one divinity, it might be better for her to enter the tower now.
Shaking her head, she decided to go as far as she could. Once she couldn't go up any higher, she'd enter the tower.
Taking a deep breath, she dragged her body up and continued to climb.