Pushing open the heavy door, Leo entered what seemed like a workshop of some sort. "Finally, some loot!" Leo said, searching through the shelves that were piled up with unknown materials. But what he could carry was limited, so he first wanted to get a good idea of what was in this place before grabbing random stuff.
Walking through the workshop, there were all kinds of different tools and gadgets that Leo didn't recognize. At the far end of the room, there was a staircase that led upstairs right next to a large vault door. Leo had no idea how to open the vault door since there were no handles whatsoever. Trying to forcefully push open the door, Leo put all his might into opening the metalic doors. But no matter how hard he tried, the door didn't even budge. If it couldn't be opened with brute force, there was definitely another way to open the door.
Taking a step back, he took a good look at the vault door. There were runes engraved deep onto the metal, with a spherical socket right in the middle of the door. Observing the socket, Leo found it to be quite familiar, as if he had seen something that could fit inside. Rummaging through his bag, he found the core from the devil statue. The size was roughly the same, it looked like it would fit inside the hole quite well. "Surely it can't be this easy," Leo thought, placing the core right inside the socket.
Hearing sounds of gears turning once he placed the core, Leo knew that it worked. He watched in anticipation, waiting to see what was stored behind such a well constructed lock. Dust fell fromthe door as it split into four, sliding open like a cool glass door. Entering the vault, there was a single pedestal inside. On top of the pedestal was a crystal ball about the size of a basketball. Leo was not sure whether touching it would trigger some sort of trap or not. The pedestal didn't look to be booby trapped, and circling around the cyrstal ball, Leo didn't see anything unusual.
Making up his mind, he decided to grab the crystal ball since it was probably the most valuable thing on this floor, since it was behind locked doors. As soon as his fingers touched the crystal ball, a large stream of information began to flood into his mind. There was so much information that was contained in the sphere that it made his headache. He stood there in a daze for about five minutes, until he finally regained his senses. Puppets, golems, runes, enchanting, all kinds of different blueprints and knowledge began to pop up in his mind. Leo trembled in delight, this was definitely the most valuable thing he could have gotten, much more important than any kind of awakening crystal. As Leo absorbed all the information stored inside the crystal ball, it dimmed down before shattering.
From the knowledge he obtained, he learnt that the murderous statue was actually a gargoyle. They were meant to be much more powerful than that, but probably due to poor maintenance, it could only exert a portion of its true strength. Exiting the vault, the mechanic door closed, the core was still in the center of the door. Retrieving the core, he realized that he could understand the runes engraved on the surface of the small sphere. "An engine powered by soul shards or awakening crystals, interesting," thought Leo. The gargoyle was definitely powered with only soul shards, or else the strength it could exert would definitely increase more than tenfold.
He looked around the workshop again, this time he could recognize every single type of material easily. He looked around the workshop to see if there was anything really valuable, but was disappointed when the rarest material here was meteoric iron. He originally thought that there could be some mithril, or something that was really rare. Meteoric iron, or sky iron, was a heavy alloy that had great durability and density, but was really bad at conducting all sorts of magic. But it was still a pretty uncommon metal nonetheless, so he still collected all the sky iron he could get his hands on.
His bag half full of sky iron, it was pretty heavy. If he didn't absorb the soul shard, he doubt he could carry the bag. Luckily the backpack was made out of some pretty decent military graded polymer, or else it would definitely tear under the immense weight. The upstairs were quite empty, there was nothing to write home about. Finally reaching the last floor, Leo was completely out of breath. There was a large gate, adorned with gold and gems. "This looks like where the boss resides in video games," Leo thought, as he sat on the stairs. Taking a sip of water and eating some beef jerky, he wanted to be in top condition before facing what could be the last boss.
While he was resting, he suddenly had second thoughts about entering the final chamber. He already had a decent yield, surely this was enough for him. But on the other hand, he really wanted to see who this tower belonged to, someone who held such precious information couldn't be a nobody. Perhaps it was a powerful awakened, or something even stronger than that. What if the one behind the doors held more knowledge?
Taking a deep breath, Leo pushed open the door slightly. The door ajar, he looked through the cracks to see a large throne room, but it was too dark to see anything else. Walking in the room, Leo decided that he was going to only worry about the problems after they arise, not burden himself with anxiety. As he entered the throne room, lights embedded on the walls began to light up one by one, lighting up the dark room. The three awakened, carefully sneaking behind Leo, saw him enter the throne room. Gary was going to enter the room, but was stopped by Mark. "If he is double awakened, you'll just be committing suicide," Mark said. They patiently waited outside, slowly awaiting for any signs of a battle happening inside the chamber.
Leo walked up to the throne, where a figure was sitting with feet up, his whole figure laid back. "Looks like you obtained the legacy crystal, " the figure said in a hoarse voice. The figure was covered in a black robe, face covered with a mask. "Who are you? What is this place?" Leo asked, seeing that the entity didn't attack him right away, he decided to ask some questions. "I would love to answer you, but you should probably deal with them first," the figure said, the door opening completely with a wave of their hand.
"And for you three waiting outside, you don't have to worry, he is not double awakened," the figure said. Realizing that they have been detected, the three walked into the room. Mark was the first to break the awkward silence. "This is a Tower of Trials, slaying the towerkeeper will reward you with great treasures," he said. Seeing that there was no reply from Leo, he continued. "We could work together," Mark said, with a sly grin. "Sure, I only have one condition," Leo said, still keeping his pokerface. "Sure, what's your condition?" Mark asked. "Teenagers are so innocent and naive, this will be a easy task," Mark thought, snickering. "If you three cut your own throats open, I'll considering working with you," Leo said, with a wide grin. "How's that for a deal?"
"You are courting death," Gary said, finally unable to suppress his own rage. His muscles swelled up, exploding towards Leo with superhuman speeds. With the spear in his hand, Leo tossed it right at Gary. Mark laughed, snapping his fingers as the spear disintegrated midair. Tossing down his backpack that was weighing him down, Leo dodged to the sides. "Do I really need to absorb the awakening crystals?" he thought. He didn't know what will happen if he decided to absorb the crystals in his pocket. Will he obtain the powers right away? Or will he be stunned by intense pain? The figure sitting on the throne watched silently, observing Leo's every move.
Mark also noticed the figure's interest in Leo, the unknown entity could possibly become a potential threat.