Chapter 1 The beginning of chaos
The night sky was no longer gloomy despite the city crumbling beneath it. I sat atop marble fragments and shards of glass, ruins of a city that once shone bright like the stars above. The smell of iron and blood still filled the air, forming a silent symphony that no one wanted to hear.
Two days had passed since the world he knew was destroyed by the same hands that once swore to protect it. I didn't move, had no reason to do so. An emptiness that couldn't be filled, not even by time.
Dex, who had been silent all this while, slowly began to stand. His voice was almost drowned by the whisper of the night wind, gazing at the sky where thousands of stars shone brightly. Dex, who had been silent all this time, finally opened his mouth.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" he said.
Strange, I thought. Those words felt out of place. But perhaps, that's exactly why those words were born—from a place deep within his soul, a place that hadn't been completely destroyed.
He stepped toward the corpse of a woman tightly embracing a child. Dex's eyes looked at them as if trying to understand something that couldn't be explained with logic. His eyes were red, but there were no tears. He had run out.
"Sorry," he said, almost whispering. Then he looked up, gazing at the sky and closing his eyes.
Perhaps... hoping all of this was just a dream that would vanish when he opened his eyes.
---
Dex didn't grow up with love. His life was a record of wounds and rejection since childhood. At ten years old, his biological parents abandoned him, discarding him like broken goods. In hunger and despair, he met a figure who changed everything—a middle-aged woman, and for the first time he felt warmth.
"From now on, we are family," she said then. A simple sentence, but for Dex, it was the first light in a dark life, someone who extended her hand and saved him.
Vannesa—the little sister who never stopped calling him "brother," the only voice that made the world feel lighter. They were his family, the only reason he continued to endure.
And the war—a war that began because of petty mockery from nobles drunk on power—took everything away.
Dex remembered his mother's screams, Vannesa's trembling body in fear, blood everywhere.
"Don't... be bound by revenge... remain a light, Dex..."
Those were her last words. Dex couldn't answer. Couldn't promise. Couldn't save her, he could only watch her breathe her last breath.
Dex closed his eyes, he collapsed to the ground, the wound on his stomach began to fester, the hunger he had felt for the past two days was unbearable.
When his eyes opened again, Dex no longer saw corpses. No longer smelled blood. Only white walls and silence enveloped him. This place was not the world he knew.
"Where is this...?"
A holographic screen floated before him.
＞ [Welcome to Tower Amerta.]
"What does this mean?"
Confused, I tried slapping my cheek hoping I would wake up in my bedroom bed.
"It hurts, does this mean this isn't just a dream?"
I kept slapping myself hoping I would wake up, each slap seemed to shatter every remaining hope I had.
The slap on his face confirmed that the pain was real. Each slap destroyed the small hope that all of this was just a delusion.
Then other information appeared.
＞ [Name: Dex Lazuardi
＞ Race: Human
＞ Age: 17 years
＞ Talent: (E)
＞ Skills: Cooking (C), Memory (C)
＞ Special Skill: Hard Work]
Thinking about it again, maybe this was what his father talked about regarding 'awakening'.
Awakening—something achieved by everyone when they reach the age of 18, and becomes everyone's anticipation to change their life, in a world where only strength is valued.
Awakening is determined by talent, from the lowest to the highest:
(F) (E) (D) (C) (B) (A) (S) and a Special rank.
Dex wasn't interested. This talent that came too late couldn't bring back what was already gone. Anger burned in his eyes.
"What's the use of all this?! My family is already dead!" Dex screamed meaninglessly.
[But this is Alef's request, your father.]
Suddenly the world felt like it stopped. Dex grabbed that screen, shaking it as if he could squeeze answers from the light.
"What do you mean... Alef? Father?"
Father? Alef, even though I wasn't his biological child, he was always kind to me.
Teaching me swordsmanship and always protecting me when traveling.
[He left a letter. Complete this Tower, and you will receive it.]
And just like that, the screen disappeared. Replaced by one sentence.
[PASS 1000 YEARS]
"What?"
***
Finally, 1000 years had passed.
There was no day and night in Tower Amerta. Only silence. Only white. Only time that felt motionless yet slowly cutting.
However, Dex remained alive. Continued to move. Continued to train his body, mind, and soul. Because [hard work] wasn't just a skill—it was a spirit embedded in him like blood in veins, keeping him sane amidst the madness.
Sometimes he talked to himself. Sometimes he talked to the Tower.
Dex, who had spent 1000 years waiting while training, showed no signs of aging or physical changes.
But his eyes, which were empty when he entered, were now much more colorful, perhaps he had released all the burdens that bound him.
[You are the only one who succeeded, and will be the last]
"What do you mean by last?"
After staying so long in this Tower, Dex knew how weak and difficult this Tower was, because everyone who tried to endure would go insane first, and eventually commit suicide.
The silent and all-white room, with no entertainment that could keep their minds sane.
The Tower's power depended on the power users they produced. The more influential the power users they produced, the stronger the Tower became.
Tower Amerta had lost its power because no one had successfully passed this tower before.
— I was lucky to have the special skill of hard work.
Every time I was about to go insane, this skill helped me stay sane.
[The Tower will disappear after you leave here]
"Why? I can help you, you know."
[Hahaha I'm glad you have good intentions]
"I just want to repay the favor."
[There isn't enough time, the Tower will immediately disappear when using its remaining power to bring you out]
"Thank you."
[It feels good that someone succeeded in passing the challenge. The others... lost their minds even before reaching halfway.]
Dex didn't answer. He had long accepted the reality that madness was the price of eternity.
"Thank you for keeping me company."
[The Tower will vanish when you leave.]
Dex felt a sense of loss.
Not for humans, but for this place. A strange home. A prison that saved him.
***
Light consumed him. And when he opened his eyes, he was in the middle of a city he had never seen before.
The capital of Larion. A city that symbolized hope, aspiration, and new life.
In his hand, a letter from Alef.
Dex opened its seal. His heart beat slowly.
＞ "Dex,
＞ If you're reading this letter, it means I didn't get to deliver it directly.
＞ But it also means the necklace I gave you protected you.
＞ I'm proud of you, my son.
＞ I have prepared a birthday gift.
＞ I hope you like it."
Simple. But tears flowed down Dex's cheeks.
"My son... yes."
A single word that buried the silence of thousands of years.
Then another letter.
His hands trembled as he opened it.
Inside was a pendant with Dex's name engraved on it. An enrollment letter to the most prestigious academy in the entire world.
It wasn't a special pendant—I couldn't even sense any magic from it.
But that wasn't what mattered. This was a gift. A path from a father to his son. A symbol of trust.
Dex looked at the sky.
"This is the beginning," he murmured. "Not the end."
He had lived a thousand years in waiting. Now, he would walk again. Not for revenge. But for his purpose, hope, and love left behind in the simple form of a letter.
And the world, unknowingly, had just welcomed a figure who had been forged by time, loss, and eternal hope.
Dex Lazuardi stepped forward, leaving the past behind, toward a new stage he had never imagined, with a small pendant around his neck, and a destiny he would carve with his own hands.
