Tower of Heaven

Naturally, The Guide wouldn't start working until many years later.

First, Atlas had to consolidate his strength. Only then would he be able to chase anything else.

One would be led to believe that he only started helping others with their journeys after he'd properly consolidated himself as someone above the 19th-floor trial, but that was incorrect.

Atlas actually began focusing on others that same year. Not to the extent of earning a title, but enough to gain a little bit of a reputation for himself.

It definitely was the result of some sort of vague emotion.

The Heavenly Emperor was always a just man who stood up for the common people. His origin was from the same kind of situation as them, so he never thought of people weaker than him as flies.

His natural instinct was to aid those who were in trouble. Perhaps it had corroded over time in his previous life, but now that he had been reborn, things were different.

His new body seemed to influence his thoughts to an extent. His youth overrode his experience, forcing him to make rash decisions.

This was one of them.

Without thinking about anything, he saw a person who needed help and helped them.

Later on, he started to see changes in himself as he played a part in journeys outside of his own. But, that was a story for another time.

It had already been established that these intermediary floors were far easier than both the tenth floor cumulative trial and the eleventh floor.

In a sense, these floors were an extension of the tutorial.

The main tutorial stood to teach young Ascenders how to use their power and be a cultivator. They trained their fighting skills and got a hint of what they'd face when they entered the tower.

However, they wouldn't truly understand its function.

The eleventh floor was an example of a freer floor trial. This type wouldn't be as common as the more purpose-based trials, but they were still very important to the tower's ecosystem.

By exploring the eleventh floor and gaining companions for themselves, Ascenders would gain a fascination for the tower and an understanding of how they were meant to climb.

The twelfth floor to the nineteenth floor served a different purpose.

Firstly, they gave young Ascenders a place to train themselves properly for what was to come. They served as a subtle reminder that the tower wouldn't truly start challenging its climbers until they reached the twentieth floor's cumulative trial.

At the same time, these floors were meant to show that even if the actual assigned tasks were monotonous, there was a story behind the tower.

Even Atlas didn't realize this aspect until many months later.

As he explored the floors to their fullest potential, Atlas found that there were several connection points between them.

They seemed like different atmospheres, and the tasks were mundane enough to be unimportant in the conversation, but subtly, it seemed like all eight floors were a cohesive picture.

Within that picture, there existed more than just what the trials led one to believe.

It was important for Ascenders to have minds of their own, after all. The tower was generous in many ways, including its method of providing trials that allowed one to understand the story behind its floors, but that was not its job.

If an Ascender wanted to properly climb and take advantage of all possible opportunities along the way, they needed to be prepared to act without supervision or assigned task, completely of their own volition.

If it weren't for Atlas deciding that these floors were a perfect place for him to hide for a bit and train, then even he would have mindlessly rushed for the twentieth floor without finding any of the hidden secrets within these worlds.

Atlas only had one real clue as to what the full picture was supposed to be.

There was a temple in the wilderness on the 14th Floor. It had gone unseen by prying eyes because it was far separated from all of the monster hordes and trial objectives. Atlas stumbled upon it as he was searching for materials for his cultivation.

The temple itself was nothing special. It might have been wondrous to the people who created it, but Atlas didn't know any of the meaning behind it and thus took no interest in its complexities.

The religion seemed to be one that he didn't know. Judging by what he could determine about its teachings, it wasn't very far spread either.

Rather, it looked to be the religion of a single nation. Perhaps it existed in the past. Perhaps it was nothing more than a prop created by the Tower.

Nevertheless, there was a single piece of wording in that temple that Atlas could make out.

[Great Mu]

It must have been the name of some sort of sect.

'However, how could a sect thrive in an environment this overrun by beasts and nature?'

Larger influences needed a great amount of space to house their disciples. More importantly, without a peaceful atmosphere for cultivation, it was impractical to hope for people to gather and worship.

Atlas didn't understand the culture of the people who had once worshipped the [Great Mu], but he was interested to learn.

Unfortunately, other than the single temple, every other piece of civilization was no more than rubble. Small etchings could be found on some rocks that indicated that they were man-made, but that was the extent of it.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard Atlas searched after finding that clue, he found nothing more.

In the end, he was forced to give up on the story of these intermediary floors and focus on training.

Though, realizing that the floors had a story was still important. He made a mental note to never progress too fast. He wanted to give himself time to learn the hidden secrets of the Tower as he scaled it.

In the coming years after that, he did nothing but focus on training.

In two years, he was able to completely consolidate his five viscera. As a human, his internal body was far weaker than his outer body.

Strengthening the viscera provided a protection that ensured the safety of a cultivator's most vital organs when they were in battle.

Obviously, as one of the first steps of body cultivation, it was not an absolute method, but an increase in defense, no matter how small, was good.

As time passed, the current strengthening would serve as a foundation atop which would rest nine palaces of strength.

Another year later, Atlas completed Muscle Strengthening as well. His physical power nearly doubled. Only then was he confident in standing against the geniuses of his generation with confidence.

It was around that time when Atlas decided to start focusing more on Guide work.

Bone Forging was a huge step just as the Earth Stage Realm was in energy cultivation. When the bones were remolded, the entire body would receive a massive increase in toughness and power.

In order to properly accomplish this step, Atlas couldn't be satisfied with the materials available to him on the intermediary floors.

'Such rare materials…I may only be able to find them in the Tower Shop.'

He had already confirmed that they were there, but they were unreasonably expensive. The Tower Shop was never meant to be the sole source of items for Ascenders in the Tower.

It promoted trade and economy. By forcing anyone who wanted to buy items from its stock to pay double or even triple what they could find the same items for in a shop somewhere, it provoked Ascenders to make connections with each other and seek self-sufficiency.

If Atlas wanted to find a store or dealer who carried or could find the materials he was looking for, however, he needed to exit the tower.

'The so-called Neutral Zones…'

He read about them when he was first entering the Tower.

Every ten floors, there was a world where Ascenders could live and train away from the Tower.

The 10th Floor's Neutral Zone, Astir, was a beginner village. There wouldn't be anything useful to him there.

Vanatos, the 20th Floor's Neutral Zone, on the other hand, was different.

In order to achieve progress in his cultivation, Atlas needed to get there.

As such, his activities in the intermediary floors didn't last longer than five years.

Still, in that short period of time, he had accomplished more than anyone else on the same floors.

And, his reputation had now reached the ears of even those who had never come in contact with him before.

It seemed that the concept of a "Guide" was not new in the Tower. Every once in a while, someone with a heroic heart would step up and aid their peers.

Yet, no Guide had ever made it past a certain point.

They all met a similar fate, after all.

An unmentionable and tragic fate, that is.