[Beginning analysis of the 95th floor of the Tower of Truth…]
[Current progress: 0.2%]
[Estimated time: 20 minutes]
Putting away the prompt, Mike, now at level 300 and having successfully undergone his second awakening, looked down at the River Styx beneath his feet.
The River Styx had been completely purified.
[Prompt: This River Styx is a drop of water from Hades’s Sea of Truth]
Mike raised an eyebrow. Was that even possible?
He couldn’t let it go to waste!
Following the Eye of Truth’s prompt, Mike found a way to refine the River Styx and store it in a specially made vial, temporarily sealing it.
After completing this task, Mike turned and walked back.
With the monsters defeated and the River Styx gone, the sword energy left by Ares naturally dissipated.
Mike easily returned to the stone and saw the man once more.
“I can’t believe you actually did it…”
The man looked ahead, his expression somewhat dazed, clearly still in shock.
“What’s so surprising about that?”
Mike shrugged nonchalantly, “Honestly, I suspect Morpheus didn’t do it back then because he didn’t want to.”
From what Mike knew, Morpheus had long mastered the [Supreme Mark].
If he had been determined, purifying the River Styx wouldn’t have been difficult.
Even without mentioning Morpheus, Apollo, who had come here before Mike, could likely purify the River Styx with just a word.
Morpheus refrained out of compassion, and Apollo out of indifference.
The Tower of Truth had a total of 100 floors, and through his exploration, Mike had gained some understanding of it.
By examining the traces left during their conquests, he had become increasingly familiar with the personalities of the three Supreme Beings.
Supreme Being Apollo had always been an observer.
He never participated in any plot.
He acted at will.
In this regard, Ares and Apollo were quite similar.
Ares’s “act at will” was the kind that said, “If there’s injustice, ask my sword.”
Simply put, he slashed whoever he wanted, killed whoever he wanted.
Apollo’s “act at will” was one of detachment and indifference, finding everything boring.
As previously agreed, Mike stored the heart-shaped stone in his inventory.
The man bowed to Mike,
“This is to show respect to your first bro.”
“This is to show respect to your second bro.”
“This is to show respect to your third bro.”
Three bows, three salutes.
The scene fell into silence, the atmosphere slightly awkward. Ahem!
Mike didn’t wait for a fourth bow, lightly coughing twice.
What about me?
Aren’t you going to thank me?!
The man understood Mike’s meaning and explained, “Your three bros have already given their answers to destiny. My respect comes from that. But you have yet to face destiny, so I can only have expectations and blessings for you.”
“May I be fortunate enough to witness you conquer that damned destiny!”
He then added self-deprecatingly, “Moreover, you don’t need to carry the respect of a stone.”
Mike was stunned, his expression stiffening, as if a bolt of lightning had struck his mind.
From the moment he met the man, Mike had overlooked one thing.
Morpheus and Ares had left their marks on this floor.
What about Apollo?
What had Apollo done?
It wasn’t until this moment that the answer revealed itself to Mike.
An eternally rolling stone, forever making futile efforts, never reaching its destination.
On the stone was carved the question:
“If destiny is destined to be futile, what then?”
It had seen the potential Supreme Beings of Morpheus and Ares’s generations.
Morpheus and Ares had given their answers, which the stone had silently recorded.
Until one day, the third potential Supreme Being, Apollo, came to this floor.
He stood before the stone of destiny and faced the question carved on it.
Apollo said to it, “Perhaps you are the witness of destiny.”
The man before Mike had originally been the stone, but Apollo’s words had turned him into a
human!
Mike was utterly shocked!
The man explained,
“Once, a king deceived Thanatos and was punished to push a stone for eternity, never
reaching the end.
The king died under the stone, and the stone, stained with the king’s blood, became the target
of Hades and Thanatos’s wrath.”
Until the stone met Apollo and became the so-called “witness of destiny.”
After hearing the man’s explanation, a bold idea surfaced in Mike’s mind.
He smiled subtly and restrainedly, “Hey buddy, how about coming to my place?”
Mike extended an invitation to ‘play video games at his house’.
“Huh?”
The man was taken aback, instinctively shaking his head, “Thanatos may be missing, but
Hades won’t let me go.”
Even though he wasn’t the original king who deceived Thanatos, merely stained with his blood, he still wouldn’t be easily forgiven.
The man emphasized, “Wherever I go, I bring disaster and suffering.”
“No worries!”
Mike patted his chest, “I’ve got connections!”
Under the rules of the Tower of Truth, Mike wasn’t afraid of anyone causing him trouble.
If someone didn’t follow the rules of the Tower of Truth?
Impossible.
With Apollo on the ninety-ninth floor, the entire tower was filled with compliance.
Seeing Mike’s determination, the man smiled wryly, “Even if you’re not worried about Hades,
I can’t enter your private space.”
“How do you know if you don’t try?”
After some persuasion, the man finally agreed to give it a try, hoping it would make Mike give
up.
Then…
The man found himself before the Mysterious Mine, just in time to see a vampire crouched in
a corner, gnawing on a chicken leg.
He actually made it in?! The man couldn’t believe Thor had such high authority in the Tower of Truth!
The vampire looked at him warily and asked tentatively, “Were you brought here to be a
laborer too?”
The man scratched his head and nodded, “Sort of. My name is Rolling Stone, but you can call
me Stone.”
“I think Rolling sounds better.” Vladimir showed a hint of pity, handing Rolling Stone a
chicken leg, saying,
“Eat it while it’s hot. It’s a gift from the great Duke Vladimir.”