Kael slowly opened his eyes.

The room was dark and quiet, illuminated only by the faint glow of distant city lights leaking through the curtains. For a few seconds, he simply lay there without moving before lazily reaching around the bed for his phone.

After fumbling around for a bit, his fingers finally found it.

The screen lit up the moment he turned it on.

00: 17

A little past midnight.

Kael yawned softly as he stretched his body, his muscles feeling slightly stiff from the sudden wake-up. Then he sat up slowly before getting off the bed.

The moment his feet touched the floor, his stomach let out a low growl.

He paused.

"...Right."

Now that he thought about it, he had not eaten anything proper since morning.

If he was about to enter the Tower again, going in hungry was probably a terrible idea.

With that in mind, Kael quietly left his room, making sure to keep his movements as silent as possible to avoid disturbing Lyra’s sleep.

The apartment remained still and peaceful as he entered the kitchen.

Without wasting much time, he quickly threw together a simple sandwich and ate it while leaning lightly against the counter. Once he finished, he cleaned everything up immediately afterward before heading back toward his room.

This time, once he entered, he did not immediately prepare to enter the Tower.

Instead, he sat quietly at the edge of his bed.

The room was silent.

His eyes remained lowered slightly as he organized his thoughts.

The previous trial replayed itself briefly inside his mind. The cliff. The spiders. The constant pressure of death breathing down his neck.

Even now, thinking about it still felt ridiculous.

After sitting there for several minutes, Kael finally exhaled slowly before standing up.

Time to prepare.

He removed his casual clothes before putting on the combat suit he had bought earlier.

At first glance, the white outfit looked almost identical to ordinary fabric clothing, simple and lightweight without anything particularly special about its appearance.

But appearances were deceiving.

This was actually an additional layer that came together with the Spectre X Nano Bracelet system.

A combat suit designed specifically to be worn beneath the nano armor.

The material itself was woven using silk extracted from Webspinner Spiders, making it far tougher than normal fabric. It could withstand low-level attacks on its own and offered impressive durability despite how light it felt.

Honestly, compared to the cheap secondhand leather gear he used during the previous trial, this thing was superior in almost every way.

Once everything was ready, Kael stood still for a moment.

Then he willed it.

Enter Tower.

The world around him immediately distorted.

His room dissolved apart like fragments of shattered glass before his surroundings rapidly reconstructed themselves once more.

The familiar start room materialized around him.

Cold brick walls.

Dull atmosphere.

The same boring enclosed space as always.

The moment Kael fully arrived, he immediately noticed a small figure flying toward him energetically.

Aiona.

"Good day, Challenger! Welcome back to the Tower!"

Kael looked toward the tiny floating guide spirit before giving a small nod.

"Hey there, Aiona."

He narrowed his eyes slightly.

"You seem unusually cheerful today. Something good happen?"

Aiona immediately brightened further.

"Yes!" she said excitedly. "Because your previous trial performance was rated as Outstanding, my authority index increased a little!"

Kael blinked.

"Oh?"

Aiona nodded rapidly.

"I can now expand the start room dimensions by a few centimeters!"

Kael stared at her for a second.

Honestly... that was not what he expected.

He had assumed authority increases would mostly affect classified information access or something similar.

He did not know the start room itself could actually improve too.

Still, it was not a bad thing.

"That’s good," he said casually.

Aiona immediately beamed even brighter at the praise.

It was almost painfully obvious she enjoyed being complimented.

Kael looked around the empty room briefly before speaking again.

"Oh, right. You mentioned before that you’d eventually be able to decorate this place."

Aiona blinked.

"Yeah."

"Then you probably should."

Kael shrugged lightly.

"Since you’re stuck spending all your time here, you might as well make the place livable."

For a moment, Aiona simply stared at him.

Then her expression softened slightly.

"Thanks for caring about me," she said quietly.

Kael looked at her for a second before simply nodding.

Then, with a single thought, a notification screen appeared before him.

[Begin Second Trial?]

[YES / NO]

Kael selected yes without hesitation.

Immediately, the start room dissolved once more.

The surroundings twisted and reconstructed rapidly around him until a completely different environment formed.

Kael found himself standing inside a massive crater.

The ground beneath his feet was rough and uneven, filled with cracks and scorched stone. Surrounding the crater itself were the ruins of what looked like a destroyed civilization.

Broken structures. Collapsed pillars. Fragments of ancient walls.

And within the crater...

Goblins.

Dozens of them.

Small green creatures wandered throughout the area carrying crude weapons while growling among themselves.

The moment the environment fully stabilized, another notification screen appeared before Kael.

[FLOOR 2 — HELL DIFFICULTY]

[Mission: The Reversal Pit]

[Objective: Eliminate all targets.]

[Combat Rule: All non-lethal hits heal the target for 50% of damage dealt.]

[One-shot kills only.]

[Targets Remaining: 50]

Kael stared at the screen for a moment.

Then he sighed.

"The Tower is really at it again..."

This challenge was absurd in its own way.

Every attack had to kill in one strike.

If his attack failed to deal enough damage, even by a tiny margin, not only would the enemy survive, but the damage would instead heal them for half the amount inflicted.

Meaning every mistake would actively make the enemies harder to kill.

Dangerous.

Very dangerous.

But strangely enough...

Kael smiled.

Compared to what he had been expecting after the spider nightmare from the previous trial, this was actually manageable.

He was confident in his offensive capability.

As long as he landed properly lethal strikes, the difficulty itself was not impossible.

Honestly, he had half expected the Tower to force him into something completely insane again.

Like climbing another cliff while bloodthirsty monsters chased him from behind.

So this?

This was acceptable.

Without hesitation, Kael reached into his inventory and pulled out one of the weapons he had purchased earlier.

A blade.

The weight immediately settled comfortably into his grip.

Compared to the generic weapon issued by the Tower previously, this sword felt significantly better balanced and far more reliable.

The moment the blade appeared, the goblins finally noticed him.

Several pairs of yellow eyes snapped toward his direction.

The creatures immediately began shrieking aggressively.

But Kael had no intention of giving them the initiative.

He moved first.

His body shot forward across the crater floor with explosive speed.

The nearest goblin barely had time to react before Kael’s blade descended.

A clean slash.

The sword carved deep into the creature’s neck instantly.

Blood sprayed.

The goblin collapsed before it could even scream properly.

[Targets Remaining: 49]

Kael glanced at the notification before smiling slightly.

"This is going to be easier than I thought."

Two more goblins rushed him from the side almost immediately.

The first swung wildly with a rusted club.

Kael dodged smoothly, using the opening to drive his blade downward straight through the goblin’s upper back and into its chest.

Instant kill.

Before he even fully pulled the blade free, the second goblin lunged toward him screaming.

Kael stepped backward without wasting movement.

At the same time, another goblin charged from his blind side.

His sword thrust forward instantly.

The blade pierced directly through the creature’s throat.

Dead.

He ripped the sword free and immediately transitioned into a downward diagonal slash.

Another goblin split open across the chest before collapsing lifelessly onto the ground.

Kael exhaled lightly.

"Four down," he muttered while looking toward the remaining goblins rushing toward him.

"Forty-six more to go."

But instead of panic, what surged through him was excitement.

His blood was pumping.

Adrenaline coursed violently through his body.

The battle had only just begun.