The heavy, runic doors of the Tower of Eternal Beginnings groaned as they swung inward, revealing a swirling vortex of nebulous energy that served as the threshold. Austin stood at the entrance, the hem of his Zenith robes fluttering in the localized gale of concentrated Mana and Qi. Behind him, the Arrival Plaza was still gripped in a suffocating silence. The image of Lucius Solar—an Emperor-family prodigy—face-down in the dirt was a sight that would be burned into the memories of every witness.
As Austin stepped into the light of the portal, the five other Hegemony Heirs remained motionless, their gazes heavy with calculation. Specifically, the Princess of the Dragon Dimension, a woman with shimmering azure scales tracing her jawline and eyes like molten sapphires, narrowed her pupils. She was Level 580, a "True Dragon Sovereign" class, yet she felt a primal shiver as Austin walked past. It wasn't his Level that bothered her; it was the fact that her bloodline, which traced back to the beginning of the Multiverse, was telling her to bow.
The transition into the Tower was instantaneous. Austin found himself standing in a vast, subterranean jungle that seemed to stretch into infinity. The "First Floor" was a misnomer; each floor of the Tower was a self-contained Absolute Reality, specifically designed by the Origin Consciousness to test the "Existence Value" of its entrants.
[Tower Notification: Floor 1 — The Jade Serpent Wilderness]
[Objective: Slay the Emerald Hydra (Level 150 - EPIC)]
[Condition: Standard Level-Sync Disabled for Zenith Bloodline]
Austin exhaled, the air in the jungle instantly dropping in temperature. To most students, the First Floor was a week-long trial of survival. To him, it was a waste of time. He didn't come here to play hide-and-seek with mid-tier beasts.
"Tenebris," Austin whispered.
In his soul, the Primordial Dragon roared. A faint, shadowy mist began to bleed from Austin's pores, coiling around his feet like a living oil. He didn't wait for the Emerald Hydra to find him. He closed his eyes, his Origin Insight scanning the vibrant jungle. He could see the flow of life force, the pulse of the earth, and the hidden nest of the guardian five miles to the north.
He moved.
His 6,800 Agility made him a ghost. He didn't run; he flickered. Each step covered hundreds of meters, the wind pressure from his movement snapping the ancient, iron-wood trees like dry twigs. Within seconds, he reached a stagnant, glowing lake where the Emerald Hydra—a beast sixty feet tall with nine heads—was feasting on a lesser dragonkin.
The Hydra sensed him and roared, eighteen eyes glowing with a toxic green light. It lunged, its heads moving like whips, each one capable of spitting a corrosive acid that could dissolve Immortal-rank armor.
"Too slow," Austin muttered.
He raised a single finger. [Void Erasure].
A tiny, pin-sized point of absolute darkness manifested at the tip of his finger. It didn't explode; it simply existed. The space around the Hydra's central heads began to cave in on itself as the Void consumed the reality the beast occupied. In a silent flash, three of the Hydra's heads were simply gone—not severed, but erased from the system's memory.
The beast shrieked, but Austin was already in its shadow. He didn't want to use his skills for everything; he needed to feel the impact of his attributes. He drove his fist into the Hydra's main body. The 7,500 Strength, backed by Stage 9 Qi Refinement, sent a shockwave through the lake. The water erupted into a massive geyser, and the Hydra's massive body detonated from the inside out.
[Target Slain: Emerald Hydra (Lvl 150 - EPIC)]
[Level Gap Bonus Applied...]
[XP Gained: 2,500,000]
[LEVEL UP! Current Level: 55]
Austin didn't wait for the floor to stabilize. "Next," he commanded the system.
The Tower complied. The jungle dissolved, replaced by a searing desert of glass.
[Floor 2 — The Glass Sea]
[Objective: Slay 1,000 Sand-Golems (Level 180)]
Austin walked into the center of the desert. He didn't hunt them one by one. He stood still and released his Chaos Domain: Absolute Zero.
A ripple of violet energy expanded from his feet, covering the fifty-mile radius in an instant. The burning heat of the desert was not just cooled; it was deleted. The Sand-Golems, massive constructs of enchanted silicate, didn't even get the chance to rise from the dunes. The moment the domain touched them, the concept of "movement" was stripped from their data. They turned into brittle, frozen statues that shattered under the mere weight of the air.
[1,000 Targets Slain!]
[LEVEL UP! Current Level: 68]
He was climbing at a rate that would have caused the Academy's faculty to have a heart attack. Most geniuses spent years reaching Floor 10. Austin had cleared Floor 2 in less than ten minutes.
By the time he reached Floor 10, the "boss" was a Void-Stalker Sentinel (Level 300 - LEGENDARY). It was the first creature that didn't die from his presence alone. It stood at the end of a long, obsidian hallway, wielding a scythe made of star-matter.
"A Primordial..." the Sentinel rasped, its voice a glitch in the system. "You are not supposed to be here for another million years."
"The system is slow," Austin replied, his eyes glowing with the hunger of the Chaos-Devouring Dragon. "I am not."
He activated [Dragon's Breath of the End].
From Austin's mouth, a beam of pure, unadulterated dissolution erupted. It wasn't fire or light; it was the raw hunger of Tenebris turned into a projectile. The Sentinel raised its scythe to block, but the star-matter weapon simply vanished the moment it touched the beam. The beam tore through the Sentinel, through the obsidian hallway, and through the very boundary of the 10th Floor's reality.
[Floor 10 BOSS Slain!]
[Calculating Rewards...]
[LEVEL UP! LEVEL UP!...]
[Current Level: 85]
Austin felt his muscles ripple with new power. He was only 15 levels away from his Level 100 Milestone—the point where the Origin Consciousness would grant him his second Class-Specific Primordial Skill.
But as he moved toward the 11th floor, the atmosphere changed. The neutral tone of the Origin Consciousness flickered, replaced by a deep, resonant chime that echoed throughout the entire Dimensional Academy.
[WORLD ANNOUNCEMENT: A NEW RECORD HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED]
[Subject: AUSTIN ZENITH]
[Achievement: Cleared Floors 1-10 in 22 Minutes and 14 Seconds]
[Reward: Primordial Essence Purity +10%, Tower Authority +1%]
Outside the Tower, the Arrival Plaza erupted into chaos. The Hegemony Heirs, who had been waiting to see if the "Level 50 weakling" would even survive the first floor, stared at the massive leaderboard floating in the sky. Austin Zenith's name sat at the top, glowing with a violet radiance that eclipsed every other name on the list.
Lucius Solar, who had just managed to stand up with the help of his guards, stared at the board, his face pale. "Twenty-two minutes... It took me six months to clear those floors..."
Back inside the Tower, Austin didn't care about the announcement. He was looking at his hands. The Stage 9 Qi Refinement was beginning to vibrate, the pressure of his Level 85 attributes pushing his cultivation toward the breakthrough point.
"Foundation Establishment," Austin whispered. "I'll break through when I hit Level 100."
He stepped into the 11th floor. The real grind was about to begin.
[UPDATED STATUS PANEL]
NAME: Austin Zenith
LEVEL: 85 (12.45% XP)
CULTIVATION: Qi Refinement (Stage 9 - Great Completion)
CLASS: Primordial Chaos Overlord (Rank: PRIMORDIAL)
LIFESPAN: 100 Years (Mortal Shell)
[VITAL STATISTICS]
HP: 5,950,000 / 5,950,000
PRIMORDIAL ESSENCE: 280,000 / 280,000
[ATTRIBUTES]
STRENGTH: 12,400 (+Level Up Gains)
AGILITY: 11,200
INTELLIGENCE: 10,900
VITALITY: 11,800
[BLOODLINE & PHYSIQUE]
BLOODLINE: The Eternal Genesis Source (PRIMORDIAL)
PHYSIQUE: Myriad Realm Unfettered Body (PRIMORDIAL)
[POWERS]
MARTIAL SOUL: Chaos-Devouring Sovereign Dragon [Tenebris] (PRIMORDIAL)
SPIRITUAL ROOT: Primordial Origin Root (PRIMORDIAL)
[SKILLS]
CLASS-SPECIFIC (LVL 50): Chaos Domain: Absolute Zero (PRIMORDIAL)
ACTIVE: Void Erasure, Sovereign Command, Dragon's Breath of the End.
PASSIVE: Eternal Presence, Infinite Affinity, Sovereign Pressure.
[TOWER PROGRESS]
CURRENT FLOOR: 11
TOWER AUTHORITY: 1% (Can influence floor environments slightly)