This time, Ignatius was able to move through the first three floors of the Eternal Tower in a total of nearly six minutes.
The first floor was swamp-themed, the second floor was a tomb full of undead, and the third floor seemed to be the surface of an almost dead alien planet where the air was so thin it was difficult to breathe.
Each "floor" was like the slice of an alternate universe stacked on top of the last, reached through the same set of smooth stone stairs which marked the identity of the Eternal Tower itself. On each of these floors, the main challenge was supposed to be the enemies themselves, though each also posed an additional risk.
On the swamp floor, there was a maze-like pattern of creaky bridges which crossed over a bubbling, acidic pool of swamp ooze below. Most of the enemies were giant flying bugs which did little damage but tried to knock Ignatius into the ooze. Because the knight was so clumsy, Ignatius dismissed Siegmund for this entire floor.
On the tomb floor, the skeletal undead would come back to life if their skulls weren't crushed after defeating them. Worse, if several skeletons fell close to one another, they'd form into a single, much more powerful enemy when they regenerated.
However, Ignatius was very familiar with this mechanic, and he simply had Siegmund step on every skull immediately after he punched the skeletons into submission.
The alien planet was more tricky. To simulate the fatigue of the thin air, all Energy costs of skills were doubled, all HP regeneration was cut in half, and all blocking, dodging, and parrying was half as effective. Even though he knew how the mechanics of the floor worked, it was very difficult for Ignatius to adjust his practiced fighting techniques to make up for the altered movement.
Thankfully, his level was so high compared to the floor level that he took very little damage from the attacks of the alien lizards who filled the environment. Unfortunately, the slowness of this floor in particular ate away at Ignatius's Hunger Clock, and he was forced to eat a lot of his food just to fill it back up.
Though he didn't want to admit it, being a solo player this early in the game gave Ignatius somewhat of a disadvantage in the Eternal Tower.
Though he could easily kill most monsters he faced, he had to do all the pathfinding on his own, and every moment he was distracted by a fight was a moment he wasn't trying to find the stairs to the next floor.
Ignatius had been accustomed to the high-level play of his first life, rather than his current weak state.
By the time he was at his peak in his first life, Ignatius had equipped all sorts of equipment and Skill Gems which gave him advantages as a solo player even in the Eternal Tower. He could, for example, run on walls, allowing him to skip over many combat encounters if he wished, and get to the next floor of the Eternal Tower very quickly.
However, he had very few tools like that as a low-level character. If an enemy stood in his way, Ignatius had to take the time to fight it… and every monster who stood behind it.
Though he'd intended to boost his combat ability as fast as possible, Ignatius now realized that he needed to focus on mobility even before that.
So, when he reached Floor 4 of the Eternal Tower, Ignatius took a moment to look over his options before heading on into an immediate fight.
The environment of Floor 4 seemed to be an industrial factory connected to an ore mine. It was very dark, except for the furnaces and other simple machinery which were used to create the components of gigantic clockwork war machines.
An intense, dry heat filled the air, along with the smell of sulfur and scorching hot metal. Beads of sweat formed on Ignatius's forehead, only to evaporate at once into the bone-dry atmosphere.
The wails of tormented spirits came from within the furnaces and the pots of molten metal lying around—the tortured ghosts of workers who had died in horrific accidents in this place. Though the factory was now abandoned, they lived on, haunting it, somehow keeping everything almost running.
This "Hell-Iron Jungle" tileset was very good news for Ignatius. There were a couple of rare encounters that he hoped to find on this map. He was especially grateful for the looming darkness of the map. Most of the ghosts and other monsters would lurk in the darkness and try to ambush him as he passed, so if he stayed right at his spawn point, they wouldn't bother him.
Siegmund had teleported into the map beside Ignatius, and was waving the air in front of his bulbous helmet with an equally bulbous gauntlet, as though he could somehow create airflow inside the heavy armor.
"Ah, my friend, what a nightmarish place this is!" the Onion Knight said in a quiet tone. "Can you hear them, the wails of the poor souls who gave their lives for the sake of industry? Truly, wars cost many more lives than those lost on the battlefield."
Ignatius nodded. "Yeah, it's pretty sad." His mind drifted to the real world, to the war which had threatened to tear all of human civilization apart in the years before Path of the Immortal launched.
This memory seemed to come from nowhere. It had wormed its way out of a hidden place and into the forefront of Ignatius's mind. It had something to do with that Chinese scientist, the man whose name Ignatius could not remember.
These memories of war, a war which hadn't really touched Ignatius's own village life in the insignificant nation of Shcarstan, didn't feel important. They weren't ones which had anything to do with Ignatius's purpose in time travel.
Yet… perhaps for the first time in his life, Ignatius felt a stab of sorrow for all the lives that had been wasted in that war. Hearing the whispered agonies of the spirits in the factory all around him, it was as though he was hearing the whispers of all the lives that had been ground into dust by the war in the real world.
The one which the United States had started within itself and which had spread like a virus throughout the world…
…Until it suddenly stopped, almost without warning, and then the world had gone about as though nothing had changed.
Except for the formation of a few new countries across the world, that is. Such as West America, the Chinese-controlled territory which had once been the American state of Washington and the top 60% of the American state of California.
Ignatius remembered Zamniel, that Paladin he'd met upon rejoining Path of the Immortal in the waiting room. He'd been a professor from North Texas, right? That was the tiny portion of the state which America still controlled. The bulk of the former state was now its own independent country, the Reformed Republic of Texas.
Whatever.
All the American and global politics didn't mean much to Ignatius. All it meant was that a lot of very ordinary people had died so that American President DeCecco, whom the Americans called "Christ Reborn," could come to power.
Ignatius wasn't American. What did he care?
In fact, did he belong to any country now? Perhaps he was a citizen of whichever country Path of the Immortal's main servers were located in.
But a feeling of deep unease settled over Ignatius as he thought about these things.
Because no matter how much he told himself that the war in the past didn't matter—a war which was over even in this new life—and that the politics didn't concern him…
Ignatius felt, deep within himself, that something was deeply wrong about all of it. It seemed as though there was some important, inescapable connection between the war and Path of the Immortal itself.
No, not between the war and the game…
Between the war and God, the AI whom Ignatius was here to stop.
And yet, no matter how much he pondered, Ignatius couldn't remember a single detail about why this was supposed to be the case.
Eventually, he let out a deep, long sigh.
"It really doesn't matter," he whispered to himself. "I'm here. The game is the only world for me. I need to focus on what's right in front of my face. And… well, I suppose I should worry about those Revenant people too… but not right now. Every moment I spend thinking about the future is a moment ticking away on my Hunger Clock."
"What's that, my friend?" asked Siegmund. "Are you hungry?"
Ignatius forced a smile, though he really had no reason to when talking to the AI. "Yeah, I'm gonna have a snack… then I'm going to send you back to town to do some errands for me."
Siegmund let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank you. This place gives me the willies, I don't mind telling you."
Ignatius scarfed down a few pieces of cheese and bread, then gave Siegmund his instructions.