Gacha Sovereign

Alex hesitated because he didn\'t know who the woman was. But when he checked her cultivation, he decided to follow her. If someone like her wanted to do something, he would have died already. After all, the woman before him was a Rank 2 God. And yes, she is still alive.

Eve looked at him moving and followed him.

When they crossed the gate, they arrived inside a huge field filled with medicinal herbs, books, scrolls, and a few things for paper production.

"This…" Alex looked around with his Spirit Eyes. He found a tree to make paper and traditional machinery. When his vision turned a bit to the right, he found a bunch of scrolls and books, so he realized the machinery was to make paper.

In the middle of the field, Alex saw a building made of wood. The woman smiled and explained. "I am sorry for this messy place. I have many things that I need to do in this area, starting from paper productions, copying the techniques from books, and gardening."

"Is this where you control everything?" Alex asked.

"Yes. The reward, challenges, and punishment are from this place. And I am the one doing it all."

"It must take most of your time…"

"Well, it was certainly true at first. But when you grew accustomed to it, you would have done it within a year or two, leaving all the other eight years to cultivate." She smiled.

"…" Alex never thought that someone lived in this tower that was supposed to be a place to change one\'s fate.

"Before that, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Zera, Eighth Zeroth Sword of his majesty, the Sword God." She bowed her head to Alex as if she was in the presence of the Spirit God. "I have been in this tower since I was a Martial Monarch, so it\'s already a few thousand years."

"You never thought about going outside?"

"Not really." She shook her head without a change of expression. "Just like your Six Elemental Gods, Five Guardians, there is always someone who is loyal to you. I am here to wait for the next Sword God to appear, but it seems it won\'t be too long."

Alex felt a mysterious glance from her as if implying Alex would do something. He remembered his promise to the Sword God and nodded. "I can only do it when the time is right. I need a hundred years at maximum to settle everything before I can fulfill that promise."

"It\'s fine. I don\'t really mind. A hundred years feels short to me." She smiled.

Alex paused for a second and asked Lin Xingzhi. \'What is she talking about? Six Elemental Gods? Five Guardians?"

[The strongest warriors of Eulja. Six Elemental Gods are former rulers before the true Spirit God ascended. It\'s better to meet them when you are back due to the matter of Evelyn before. As for the Five Guardians, they are the ones holding the fort of our territory.]

[West, North, East, South, and Center. These five were the ones protecting the territory from any kind of threats. There is one last title, which is the Ten Commandants. They are the ones protecting Eulja when others are not there, AKA in war. Zark is one of the Ten Commandants.]

\'I see. It seems I really know nothing about Eulja. Maybe I should take my time to learn when I return next.\' Alex nodded with a serious expression.

[I will teach you everything and try to make a secret meeting to meet all of them.]

\'Thanks.\' Alex then turned to Zera. "Still, a Martial Monarch huh."

"I was given a second chance in the past from him, and he was my master. After Master\'s death, the others decided to go to war and died by the swords like how they wanted to. But I received Master\'s last will to wait for someone to come here that would become his successor.

"Me, who was only a weak person at that time, agreed to be the administrator of this tower, learning everything I needed to maintain this tower. And yes, I was the one who accompanied my Lord in his last time, and his grave is here. That\'s why you can\'t find his grave in the outside world." She smiled.

Alex looked at her and smiled. "He was lucky to meet you."

"No, no. It was the other way around." She shook her head, facing Alex with a conviction.

Alex had no plan to mock that conviction because all the people under him were similar to her.

"When he met you in the Sword Stone, his will in this place appeared and told me about you. Hence…Would you like to listen to my story?" She smiled.

Alex nodded and followed her to the house. She then took out a wooden table and chairs so the three of them could sit down to talk.

When they finally had the chance to relax, she suddenly forgot what to say. "Hm…What should I tell you again…"

Alex twitched his eyebrows. "How should I know?"

"Anyway, how about I tell you about my identity first? Maybe I will remember it after that."

Alex nodded.

"Sorry for that. Living here alone makes me a bit too forgetful since I can simply take my time to search around since nothing will lose here." She chuckled. "Anyway, my purpose here is to administer the tower until his successor comes here.

"From what my Lord told me, you will be the one taking him here. Is that true?"

"Yes. I promised him to teach someone as his successor. Is that meant I need to give him to you?"

"No, no. You can teach him like how you usually do. When the time is right, please send him here. I will be his mentor and explain everything about the Sword God and myself."

"I see." Alex nodded. "I understand. It\'s simple then. I will teach him what I know and when I have nothing to teach him anymore, I will send him to you."

"I appreciate it."

Alex then looked around and found many things that would allow her to be sustainable in this place. "Those are…"

"I am a Forging Master, you know. I got all the items needed from the people who died during the test. In exchange, I use a portion of my time to create papers and manage all the things for inheritance in this place.

"Well, there is a reason for this too. Do you know the material of this tower? It\'s one of the most durables in the universe. My Lord acquired a giant chunk of this material and turned it into this tower. And when the new Sword God is born, I will be the one creating the perfect weapon for him.

"Well, it\'s pretty boring despite all these jobs, so I often talked to people when I opened the gate. I only appeared to those I deemed interesting. Unfortunately, not a single of them appeared to be qualified to be the next Sword God, which was the reason why they never reached this place, or you could say, the place beyond the fifth stage."

Alex closed his eyes for a bit before asking. "I wonder what all those people will think when there is actually a Rank 2 God in here all this time."

"Haha…They will go insane." She chuckled. "However, I can\'t go out no matter what. My Lord believed we would face a catastrophe in the future, so he asked me to increase my strength here until that time comes. I don\'t know what that is, though."

Alex shrugged. He thought it would be the ancient beast, but he doubted it because it must be his ego talking about that. "I see. But are you sure you don\'t need to watch the rest?"

"No need for the time being. The settings and layout are there, and we will just need to wait for the result. Besides, you have cleared this place in less than half a day. Normally, I can wrap it up after three days or something since most participants should have left this place. That\'s why I have enough time to chat with you. The one that was known as someone who could go toe to toe with my master."

Alex shrugged.

"Haha…You have come to terms with it, so I won\'t talk about it anymore. I only want to warn you about a certain thing. This world can\'t be trusted."

"You don\'t need to tell me that. I have never placed any trust in this world to begin with." Alex nodded, remembering how they conquered that planet just for training.

"In that case, do you want something in particular? Such as techniques or items?" She asked.

"I don\'t need anything, only the Sword Qi. I am trying to aim as high as possible. Depending on how long, I might be able to reach Rank 8 before leaving this world."

"Oh. In that case, I can give you two months here. At the same time, I will help you in accumulating the Sword Qi from this place, so you can absorb it faster. Of course, I can only do this after this place is closed again."

"That\'s interesting enough for me." Alex nodded.

Suddenly, Zera recalled something. "I am still wondering…"

Alex furrowed his eyebrows when he saw Zera\'s eyes move to Eve. "Is that a Sword Spirit? I have seen the Sword Breaker, but I never know there is another one like him."

"Yes. She is a Sword Spirit, and she is from this world too. What do you want?"

"No need to be so hostile. I have no bad intentions." She hurriedly waved her hands. "I just want to ask whether you want me to teach her some controls as a Sword Spirit or not? After all, I knew almost every technique in this world since I had copied all of them. And my Lord also taught me about the Sword Spirit in the past, so I believe I can teach her something. This will surely make your coordination better. In fact, that\'s the purpose of the trials.

"For example, the first one is to know about your ability about the Sword and trust it. After all, you have walked in this path, so you need to use it constantly to open the next path. That\'s the essence of the first trial.

"The second stage is all about exploring your talent in sword and measuring it by seeing how good your control is. As for the third stage, it\'s about the bond with your Sword, and since you have a Sword Spirit, it\'s easier for you to pass the stage because you two can understand each other easier than any other people.

"Normally, only the Master would do all the things, but there was a trick there. When your weapon chose to sacrifice itself just to protect you, I believe you were qualified enough to pass that stage. After all, people know about the consciousness inside a weapon, and it will have a stronger response when it\'s smarter, which I tweak a little bit on the third stage.

"Either way, it is a good measure to know your relationship with your Sword. Master always told me to trust my weapon because it will be the one that cuts my enemy and protects me from many attacks.

"After realizing the bond between you and your weapon, the fourth stage is to deepen it by going through many challenges. Lastly, the fifth stage is the place of an endless maze. This is only to see their determination whether they can be a good warrior or not.

"But you…I let you skip it because you are already "Qualified," so there is no hard feeling."