—

[Greetings, Challenger! Welcome to the Tower of Prodigies! ]

[Would you like to register your racial identity? ]

This was the very first thing that Cedric heard after the world stabilized around him.

He found himself standing inside a seemingly boundless blue space filled with grids, which reminded him of those virtual reality games he played back then. Even the voice prompt that welcomed him sounded like one. It really made him wonder if this was all a coincidence or on purpose.

Cedric cleared his throat and asked, “What does registering my racial identity mean?”

[By agreeing with this, you are allowing us to collect data about you and your race.]

[This will help us provide you with more dynamic levels during the trials, which will also help you improve greatly and provide you with rewards that suit you the best.]

[Rest assured, Challenger. This data is under the protection of the Divine Council Laws. [Any data you provide to us will not be shared with other parties unless we receive your explicit and written agreement.]

[That said, would you like to register your racial identity, Challenger? ]

Cedric took a deep breath after thinking for a bit, then replied, “Sure, what do I need to do?”

[You only need to stand there and relax, Challenger.]

Weng!

It’s like someone took a picture of him without any warning. Cedric didn’t even see that coming, and he’s on alert.

[Racial identity, registered Thank you for your participation, Challenger. Please tell us what alias you want to use within the trials.]

An alias…Cedric learned about this in the token he received from Big Han. Setting up an alias is a privacy measure. Sometimes, it’s inevitable that friction between challengers happens during the trials. A person’s real name holds a lot of power, and there are plenty of ways to kill someone just by knowing their real name.

So, to prevent this from happening, it is decided that all Trial Challengers must use an alias instead of their true name. Cedric has already decided what alias he’s going to use, even before he arrived here.

“Dawnbringer.” Cedric declared, “I’ll use the alias ‘Dawnbringer’ during my stay.”

[Alias: ‘Dawnbringer’ set! Congratulations, Dawnbringer, and welcome to the Tower of Prodigies. Best of luck to you.]

[If you have any concerns, you can summon the system AI to help you. We also suggest that you educate yourself about the rules and regulations that will be observed while you’re in the tower.]

[Everything you need to know is provided in the system interface that you may access at your leisure.]

[You will now be transported to the first floor of the tower; please stand by.]

Swoosh!!

Cedric watched as the world around him warped. The blue tiles all around him flipped over and revealed a completely different world. He found himself standing in a modern and fancy-looking penthouse, which surprised him greatly.

The interior motif was a mixture of soft and beige colors. The floor was made of marble tiles, and the walls are painted with similar-themed colors. He saw couches, chairs, chandeliers, lamps, beanbags, small tables, and other essentials that he’s extremely familiar with.

Cedric even saw a system prompt floating within his vision, pointing him in the direction of his private room.

“Oh, look! A new guy! Hello there!”

Cedric turned his head towards the location of the voice and saw his first ‘stranger’.

The stranger was a tree. There’s no other way to describe them, truly. Based on the icons that are floating beside the stranger’s head, it should be a she.

Her skin looked like aged tree bark, her hair was braided grass, and her eyes were like those of a hawk’s. She’s wearing a dress made of sewn flowers, which does very little to hide her suggestive and provocative figure.

What gave Cedric a profound impression of her were her wings. She had two pairs of dragonfly wings that were gently fluttering behind her.

Cedric noticed a line of moss above her eyes, which should be her eyebrows, lifting. He immediately caught himself and said,

“I apologize for staring. I’m new here. My name’s Dawnbringer. Nice to meet you.”

“My, what a gentleman. I forgive you, and truthfully, I can’t blame you for staring. I reacted more violently than you did during my first time, so…haha.”

Her voice was pitchy but pleasant to the ears.

“Call me Moss Lady. Aside from us, there’s 6 more people here. They can’t come out now because they’re either in seclusion or had something to take care of in their world. That said, welcome to the Trial of Prodigies.”

“Thank you,” Cedric replied.

“You must have a lot of questions right now. I suggest you go into your room and learn everything you can about this place; the system AI should help you with it. Go on.” Moss Lady waved her stick-like fingers at him in dismissal.

Cedric nodded before following the green trail that the system left for him to follow. It led him down the hall, and he pointed at the third door on the left.

The moment he entered his room, he was met with another surprise.

Swoosh!!!

“What the hell!?”

Cedric was expecting to see an ordinary-looking bedroom. It’s only normal since the reception area of the 1st floor of the tower looked incredibly familiar to him, so he was expecting a bed, maybe a large window, some other furniture, and so on, in this room, but no, that’s what he saw.

Instead, he arrived at a massive, open world covered with a thick blanket of grass. The crisp and fresh breeze of the wind caressed his entire body. The sky above him was clear and blue, adorned with various shapes and sizes of clouds.

Cedric could see a house from a distance, one that looked humble and strangely familiar to him. It’s fenced and has a small lake on the back.

“What’s going on?” Cedric muttered to himself as he made his way towards the house.

[This is your private room, Dawnbringer.] The system AI responded. [It’s a minor dimension where you can stay to hone your skills or seclude yourself.]

[You can go all out here and not worry about destroying things because this realm can repair itself faster than you can destroy it.]

“I see.” Cedric hummed in understanding.

He paused in his steps and immersed himself in the atmosphere. He could feel his body thrumming in joy for some reason. The sigil, which represents the aspect of the sun in particular, was vibrating in glee within his soul, greedily absorbing the sunlight.

This caused Cedric’s eyes to snap wide open. He looked incredulously at the sky above, his mouth gaping slightly. With a shuddering breath, he calmed himself down and thought,

“Of course, the absence of the real sun was a unique thing in my world. A place like this would obviously not lack something like this. They might even have it in spades.”

Cedric felt emotional for a brief moment. This just reminded him of the disparity between their civilizations, but he forcefully tapered this emotion down. He’s not here to wallow in despair and cry about the unfairness. He’s here to prove something.

Upon arriving at the residence and looking at it closely, it reminded him of a vacation house, one that could be seen on the resorts of high-end hotels. The whole place made him feel comfortable, even more so when he felt the density of foreign energies here and the obvious lack of corruption.

“That lake is absurd.” Cedric took a deep breath as he sensed the sheer density of energy in that lake.

Simply put, if he were to liquidize all the energies present in his world, it would only amount to a bucket of water in this lake; even then, its quality could never hope to match it.

[This is a C-Grade Spiritual Lake. You may use it in any way you please, Challenger.]

These words caused Cedric’s eyes to flash strangely. He then asked, “Can I take some of it back to my world?”

[So long as you don’t damage the Origin Formation beneath this lake, you can have as much as you want, challenger.]

“Oh…oh wow…”

Cedric was speechless. That alone made this trip worthwhile. If he could bring back as much spiritual water as he could to his world, he could only imagine how much benefit it could give to his people.

Yet as much as he was tempted to do that, he had to calm down. He had other things to take care of. He had to remind himself that this was just a bonus and that he had to keep an open mind. He couldn’t be blinded by momentary wealth and miss the real prize. He has to stay true to his goal.

He tore his gaze away from the lake and entered the bedroom. He was greeted with a more familiar sight in here. He didn’t think too much of it. Instead, he laid on his bed and stated:

“System, give me a crash course of all the things I need to know about this tower and the trials.”

[As you wish, Challenger…]

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