Tower of Heaven

Atlas set up a base in Minora. It was a good place for him to stay and become associated with the happenings of the Tower.

'I have to wait for any sort of talent to be found. Scarlet Fox is also looking for Relics of Death that I can either buy or find. Contacting a Death God is…also something I have to do after forming a Society Legend.'

There was nothing for him to do at this moment. Well, at least if he was fine with staying still.

Naturally, Atlas wasn't going to sit around and do nothing. Even if he had to wait before anything real could be done, there were still small steps he could take.

'Just like the Neurics, I have to start by building a foundation of knowledge and influence before I can really blossom.'

First things first, the creation of a Society.

Actually, anyone could create a Society quite easily. One only needed to register with the system and then the Society would be recognized.

It was easy to create them, but it was not easy to abandon them. If one created a Society and then wanted to abandon it, there were severe consequences.

"I would like to form a Society."

[You have requested the formation of a Society. Please confirm.]

Atlas wasn't thinking of the consequences. Even if this Society was fated to become nothing, he never had plans of joining another one, so it didn't matter.

[Please register the members of your Society.]

[Ascender [Atlas Vaun] has been registered as the [Founder]. There is currently [1] member registered. [Founding Member] Titles will remain awardable for [1 Year] after the formation of the Society.]

[Please choose a name for your Society.]

He didn't need to think about the name.

"Pangea."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

It came to him almost in a dream. It rolled off of his tongue before he could process what was being said, so smoothly that it felt more like natural law than an independent action.

He didn't even know what the word meant, but he felt like it perfectly symbolized his desires for this Society.

[The new Society, [Pangea], has been registered in the system.]

The system's messages affirmed its creation. Atlas didn't feel like anything much changed, but a symbol created by the Tower to represent his chosen Society name had engraved itself into his soul.

[Congratulations! You have formed a Society. Your Society currently has [1] members. By increasing the size of your Society and contributing to its Legend, you will receive benefits.]

There were no benefits now, but as long as he worked hard, they would appear.

Atlas was the only member. He was hoping to recruit more members at some point, but for now, he was enough.

On the side, Scarlet Fox had already given him all the information she found about Dusk. She was no longer a part of Heaven's Eye, but she still had connections within the Society that she could use.

Because of her, Atlas very conveniently got his hands on the locations of every Dusk base or facility in the Tower. Their main base was on the 50th Floor, which he could not reach at the moment, but that was less than a problem.

It only meant that their high executives wouldn't be able to stop him until it was too late.

'From Astir to Minora, there are tens of crucial bases that I can strike. It might be a bit much to use them in this way, but they were the ones who tried to kill him first.'

Since they decided to antagonize him, they were the first ones who came to mind when he needed to improve his Society Legend. They brought upon themselves this feud.

Atlas didn't continue to climb the Tower. There was one main reason for this.

'Once I step foot on the fiftieth floor, I will not be able to enter any lower Trial Floor. Other than the Neutral Zones, the first forty-nine floors will become unavailable to me through ordinary means.'

As long as he was still in the Mortal Realms of cultivation, there were still ways for him to descend to lower floors, but it was far too much of a hassle. Rather than dealing with something like that, Atlas preferred his current method.

The 41st Floor that he'd seen was something he knew well. This setting was based on the 36 Empires, a collection of island nations that were regarded as one massive influence.

Atlas was very familiar with this setting as it…

Well, it was the location of a certain small village, a small village where a small child appeared one day out of nowhere.

Atlas' best and worst memories from his past life existed in this very place. He wanted to explore it thoroughly with a clear mind rather than while he was preoccupied with saving his friends.

'Luckily for me, Dusk is not active between the 40th and 50th Floor. As they are focused on weaker and newer Ascenders, they keep their activities on the lowest floors.'

In other words, all of the locations Atlas needed to reach were available to him.

'Good. There is a lot of rage inside of me right now.'

He would have preferred to slaughter some Cosmic Dragons, but those cowards didn't have many bases on the lower floors.

That wasn't to say they wouldn't get what was coming to them. Atlas' first stop was the 11th Floor, which was quite a convenient thing.

'The biggest recruitment facility of Dusk. We can start there.'

He would bring it down to the ground and leave it filled with corpses.

'And, I heard that there are quite a few Cosmic Dragons on the 11th Floor right now.'

They had a new generation of great geniuses entering the Tower. Perhaps their reason for imprisoning Artemia was related to this.

'You shouldn't have made such a big move.'

Or maybe they made such a big move because they wanted the Heavenly Dragons to attack their youngsters. Perhaps they sacrificed their younger generation so they could have an excuse to start a war.

As Atlas learned from Scarlet Fox, the Cosmic Dragons had been gathering power for some time. It seemed that they had gained something 500 years ago that made them absolutely confident that they could defeat and dethrone the Heavenly Dragons.

They took these 500 years to consolidate their power, and now that they were ready, they were acting.

Kidnapping Artemia was the first step of the plan. They used Horgen to do so, which absolutely tied them to the event, but there was also no way to prove that it was their doing. This made their hostility clear to the enemy but did not allow them to retaliate.

'That isn't going to happen as long as I am present.'

It couldn't be misunderstood. Just as they so dearly wanted, those younger geniuses would die.

However, the Heavenly Dragons would have no connection to it.

Around this time, Atlas started working towards his third title in the Tower.

He was going to become a calamity like the Tower had not seen in a very long time. Yet, he was separate from them, as he did not attack anyone indiscriminately.

The people of the Tower began to fear him, and within some months, a popular saying arose.

"Do not anger the white mask."

For if the white mask was angered, only death would follow.