The runic gates of the Tower of Eternal Beginnings hadn't just closed behind Austin; they had sealed off a world that no longer made sense. Behind him lay the shock of the Arrival Plaza and the shattered ego of Lucius Solar. Before him lay the vast, artificial Absolute Realities of the Tower—a place where the Origin Consciousness held total sovereignty.
As Austin stepped into the light of the first floor, the transition was instantaneous. He found himself standing in a vast, subterranean jungle that seemed to stretch into infinity. The 1st Floor: The Jade Serpent Wilderness was a misnomer; it was a self-contained universe designed by the Origin Consciousness to test the "Existence Value" of its entrants. The air was thick, heavy with a green-tinted mana that felt like breathing liquid jade.
[Tower Notification: Floor 1 — The Jade Serpent Wilderness] [Objective: Slay the Emerald Hydra (Level 150 - EPIC)] [Condition: Standard Level-Sync Disabled for Primordial Tier]
Austin exhaled, and the humid jungle air instantly dropped in temperature, frost creeping up the massive iron-wood trees. To most students, even those from Great Families, the First Floor was a week-long trial of survival and tactical scouting. To Austin, it was a bureaucratic delay. He didn't come here to play hide-and-seek with mid-tier beasts.
"Tenebris," Austin whispered.
In the depths of his soul, the Primordial Dragon roared. A faint, shadowy mist began to bleed from Austin's pores, coiling around his feet like living ink. 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 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 drakonid. The Hydra sensed him and roared, eighteen eyes glowing with a toxic green light. It lunged, its heads moving like whips, 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 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)] [Experience Multiplier Applied: Massive Disparity Bonus] [LEVEL UP! Current Level: 55]
Austin didn't wait for the floor to stabilize. "Next," he commanded. 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]
The climb continued at a rate that would have caused the Academy's faculty to have a heart attack. Most geniuses spent years reaching Floor 10. Austin cleared Floor 5 (The Storm Peaks) and Floor 8 (The Iron Catacombs) in minutes. By the time he reached Floor 10, his presence was so heavy the Tower walls began to crack. The "boss" was a Void-Stalker Sentinel (Level 300 - LEGENDARY).
"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]. The beam of pure dissolution tore through the Sentinel, the hallway, and the very boundary of the 10th Floor's reality.
[Floor 10 BOSS Slain!] [Current Level: 85]
But as he moved toward the 11th floor, the atmosphere changed. A deep, resonant chime 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 Arrival Plaza was in chaos. Hegemony Heirs like Xylona Draconis and Morrigan Void-Walker stared at the leaderboard. Austin's name sat at the top, glowing with a violet radiance that eclipsed every other name.
Austin entered Floor 11: The Prismatic Void. Here, the enemies were Mirror Phantoms (Level 350) that copied the attributes of the challenger. The phantoms manifested, trying to mimic his violet eyes and his Sovereign Pressure. But as they tried to replicate the Primordial Chaos within him, their forms began to glitch. The "Existence Value" of a Primordial was too heavy for the floor-logic to sustain.
CRACK. SHATTER.
Without Austin even lifting a finger, the phantoms exploded into crystalline dust. They couldn't even stand in his presence.
[Target(s) Slain: 500 Mirror Phantoms] [LEVEL UP! Current Level: 92]
He was close. Level 100 was breathing down his neck. His Stage 9 Qi was vibrating, pushing against the barrier of his mortal shell. "Foundation Establishment," Austin whispered. "I'll break through when I hit Level 100."
[ STATUS PANEL]
NAME: Austin Zenith
LEVEL: 92 (44.50% XP)
CULTIVATION: Qi Refinement (Stage 9 - Great Completion)
CLASS: Primordial Chaos Overlord (Rank: PRIMORDIAL)
[ATTRIBUTES]
STRENGTH: 13,800
AGILITY: 12,500
INTELLIGENCE: 12,100
VITALITY: 13,200
[SKILLS]
CLASS-SPECIFIC (LVL 50): Chaos Domain: Absolute Zero
ACTIVE: Void Erasure, Sovereign Command, Dragon's Breath of the End.
PASSIVE: Eternal Presence, Infinite Affinity, Sovereign Pressure.
[TOWER PROGRESS]
CURRENT FLOOR: 12
TOWER AUTHORITY: 1%