What time was it now?

Carlotta stared at the bright sky, momentarily unable to tell. Outside, it was certainly still night, yet the environment within the Tower of Babel constantly changed in unpredictable ways, impossible to use as a reference.

She immediately pulled out her clock card and checked, only to find that time was approaching dawn.

This sparked a flicker of anticipation within her.

Not long after, she and Amelia discovered the passage leading to the third floor. As they ascended the spiral staircase, the time finally reached the early hours of the morning.

Carlotta immediately opened her intelligence report and touched at it.

[ 1: Within the Tower of Babel, the entrance locations of each floor are distributed as shown (a map).]

Perfect, exactly what she needed.

Carlotta quickly tapped open the map and instantly understood.

She was currently still on the second floor. The passage from the second to the third floor was marked with a red dot, overlapping exactly with her current position.

As for the next floor, she couldn't see it yet.

But she already grasped the logic. Once she entered the third floor, the passage from the third to the fourth floor would appear on the map.

'Only when I reach the corresponding floor will the next passage appear. That makes sense. Otherwise, the map would be too large and obstruct the view.'

Carlotta mused silently.

She continued reading the next piece of intelligence.

[ 2: Within the Tower of Babel, the valuable areas of each floor are shown as indicated (a map).]

Here it came again, another map!

Carlotta examined it carefully, noting it worked the same way as the previous map, only the floor she was currently on would appear. At the moment, she could only see the layout of the second floor.

On the second floor, few areas were marked as valuable. Each marked location also specified what item it contains.

Carlotta's eyes scanned across, spotting alchemical ores, medicinal herbs, and similar things.

'Are these considered rare?'

Seeing those somewhat familiar terms, Carlotta's expression grew slightly odd.

After a moment's thought, she understood. "Valuable" was relative to the floor. Things that seem ordinary to her were already precious on the second floor, hence why they were marked on the map.

Carlotta shook her head inwardly. These so-called valuable items were no longer of interest to her. She had no intention of staying behind to collect them.

Her immediate priority was to reach higher floors and gather the truly valuable items found there, those were the things worth pursuing.

Regardless, these two pieces of intelligence were excellent.

Carlotta proceeded to the third intelligence report.

[ 3: Achilles Carlisle and Selene Vire have currently arrived at the Tower of Babel and are exploring.]

Upon reading this, Carlotta momentarily froze, her mind drifting.

Achilles Carlisle.

Selene Vire.

These two names were far too familiar. Wasn't her journey southward, far from the Wendell Empire, precisely because of these two?

The head of the Carlisle family, and the practitioner of Seer Magic.

'Unbelievable they've come here too. Are they here for me? Or for some other reason? But regardless... I am no longer who I once was.'

Carlotta's gaze turned slightly profound.

When she left the Wendell Empire, she was merely an apprentice. But now, even facing a Weaver, she felt no fear, this was a complete transformation.

'Back then, I could only flee and hide from you. But now, I am no longer the person you remember. If I should see you...'

A flicker of danger flashed in Carlotta's eyes.

[ 4: Lucas Castro has entered the Tower of Babel. Personal information regarding Lucas Castro is as follows...]

The fourth piece of intelligence was still related to an enemy.

Carlotta scanned the personal details about Lucas and immediately realized the mechanical fortress expert she had encountered before must have been this man.

The previous intelligence about the mechanical fortress had already given her a basic understanding of its occupants. This new report, however, provides far more detailed information, including Lucas's various combat techniques and the alchemical constructs he possessed.

'This guy isn't simple. He'll be difficult to deal with.'

Carlotta glanced at the report, growing somewhat cautious toward this individual.

Notably, back in the Bass Archipelago, due to intelligence, she could pinpoint the exact location of every person within the mechanical fortress. But inside the Tower of Babel, she couldn't determine Lucas's location.

Although the Tower of Babel exists within the Bass Archipelago, it wasn't truly part of them, it was an independent entity.

Having finished reading the intelligence, Carlotta reached the end of the spiral staircase. She stepped forward, arriving at the third floor.

A howling wind blew straight into her face. The scene before her was an open plain, vast and distant. From afar came the roars of monsters.

Immediately, both maps within her intelligence report switched to the layout of the third floor, showing the passage to the next floor and marking the locations of valuable items.

Uninterested in the early tier valuable items, Carlotta pulled Amelia along and headed straight toward the passage to the next floor.

Time flew by rapidly.

Thanks to her knowledge of passage entrances, each time Carlotta arrived at a new floor, she moved directly toward the next. In the blink of an eye, dozens of floors passed beneath her feet, and the number of people around her dwindled.

By the time she reached the third floor, she could barely see anyone nearby. By the fourth floor, there wasn't a single person in sight, only she and Amelia remained, continuing their ascent.

Still, she couldn't claim to be the fastest. When she reached the fifth floor, she spotted a figure in black clothing just stepping through the spiral staircase into the next floor. The aura radiating from that person was terrifying, an incredibly powerful expert.

She didn't dare approach. Only after the figure had left did she proceed to the next floor.

Fortunately, upon entering the fifty-first floor, she didn't encounter that person again, accurately locating the passage and entering the fifty-second floor.

Carlotta continued advancing to the next floor.

Throughout this process, Amelia's expression shifted. She clearly noticed that Carlotta seemed to know the location of every entrance, allowing her to exactly locate and proceed to the next floor upon arrival.

Yet on the first and second floors, Carlotta clearly hadn't known their locations, having searched around with her.

'How did she do it? She's my companion, yet she keeps so many secrets, even I don't know... I won't ask. I'll wait for her to tell me.'

Amelia thought silently.

Even though she knew where the entrance to the next floor was, descending floor after floor still took considerable time, because the interior of the Tower of Babel was truly vast, and the number of floors was terrifyingly high.

When she reached the hundredth floor, Carlotta estimated her real-world position might already be nearing the stars. Or perhaps she had already arrived among the stars; she couldn't calculate it exactly, it was purely intuition.

"Roar!"

In the forests of the hundredth floor, roars echoed everywhere. The environment appeared extremely primitive. Monsters roamed across the land, their howls rising and falling without end.

Carlotta hadn't seen any other people who had entered the Tower of Babel for quite some time. All she saw now were various monsters, many of which she was encountering for the first time, creatures that had never appeared outside this tower.

The monsters here generally possess the strength of early tier Listeners.

Not far away, a bird-like with four-colored plumes suddenly spread its wings and dove down from the sky, attacking Carlotta with vicious ferocity.

In response, Carlotta flicked a finger. A blade of sword aura shot forth from her fingertip, slicing the cleanly in half, sending blood spraying into the air.

Nearby monsters, who had originally turned their eyes toward the scene, silently averted their gazes.

This time, Carlotta didn't rush toward the next passage, because on this floor, she had discovered something interesting.

On the map that marked valuable items, a tree was indicated. This tree bore a kind of fruit never heard of outside. On the map, these fruits were labeled as "Magic Fruits," which had the effect of refining magical energy, making it purer and purer.

The Listener stage was essentially a process of refining magical energy. Generally speaking, by the time one becomes a Resonator, their magical energy would already be mostly refined, and it would be difficult to further purify it afterwards.

But these Magic Fruits allow one to purify magical energy once again. For a transcendent being, this meant a simple, direct boost in combat strength.

The purer the magical energy, the stronger every technique will naturally become.

Carlotta felt she couldn't afford to miss this fruit tree, at the very least, she shouldn't leave it for those who came later. Otherwise, if her enemies ate the Magic Fruits, wouldn't that be aiding the enemy?

Without delay, she flew towards it. After spending a considerable amount of time, she finally spotted the target tree on a mountain.

'Hundredth floor's space seems to have shrunk a bit. Could it be that the higher up we go, the smaller the space becomes?'

Carlotta mused.

Although it took her a while to see the target tree, she also caught sight of the boundary. On the opposite side of the mountain where the tree stood, the scenery was of the sky, extending all the way down to the ground. Upon closer inspection, she could see the wall was shaped like the sky, and upon touching it, it felt cold.

Outside of this wall, would it be the starry sky?

Carlotta didn't know. But Amelia had previously mentioned that when powerful transcendent beings fought in the upper floors, even their terrifying attacks couldn't damage the walls at all. Destroying the Tower of Babel was basically impossible.

Carlotta didn't pay too much attention to the boundary, and turned instead toward the tree.

"No way... this tree only bears nine fruits?"

Carlotta looked up, staring at the tall tree with its extremely sparse fruits, half-laughing, half-exasperated.

"What kind of fruit is this?"

Amelia asked, puzzled.

"This? You'll know once you eat it. It's beneficial."

Carlotta smiled.

She immediately picked one fruit and ate it. As she did, she sensed the magical energy inside her body beginning to surge, undergoing autonomous refinement, purifying step by step.

Seeing how confident Carlotta was, Amelia promptly took one fruit and ate it too.

After swallowing a bite of the fruit's flesh, she quickly understood the fruit's effect, and immediately began carefully observing the changes within her body.

As their magical energy was further purified and automatically circulated, their body's magical transformation progressed naturally as well.

Carlotta felt she might be close to advancing further.

She ate two Magic Fruits in succession before noticing the effect had faded. Amelia had also eaten two.

"Let's put away the remaining five. Sigh, these things aren't easy to sell."

Carlotta sighed.

Although the Magic Fruits were highly effective, who could know the function of such an unfamiliar fruit?

"Then don't sell them. Keep them for people we know."

Amelia said.

"True. For people we know, and for descendants. We can save them for everyone."

Carlotta nodded in agreement.

Amelia glanced at Carlotta. Descendants? What descendants? Was Carlotta thinking of having descendants with her?

But with their unconventional relationship wasn't it impossible to have descendants?

Thinking about this, Amelia felt her face growing warm.

She slapped her cheeks lightly and said, "Let's go, let's go. To the next floor. You know where the passage is, right?"

"I do."

Carlotta nodded with a smile. "Amelia, aren't you going to ask me why I know?"

"Will you tell me the reason?"

Amelia asked.

"Would you be upset if I didn't tell you?"

Carlotta countered.

"If it's inconvenient, then don't say it. Everyone has secrets. I have secrets you don't know about either."

Amelia thought of her Soldier Roster.

But what she didn't know was that the existence of the Soldier Roster hadn't been a secret for a very, very long time.

Carlotta reached out and gently brushed Amelia's hair, saying, "Some things, I'll tell you later, when all the matters that should end have finally settled."

The two didn't linger here any longer.

Under Carlotta's lead, they soon found the passage to the next floor and successfully entered the 101st floor.

After that, the floors continued climbing steadily.

Starting from the hundredth floor, each floor always featured something that caught Carlotta's interest, something worth staying a little longer to obtain.

These items were mostly various plants, fruits, herbs, a few natural alchemical materials, or some special cultivation sites.

A "cultivation site" referred to a special area where staying within granted strong reinforcement, making cultivation significantly easier.

For example, in the underwater palace of floor 111, cultivating water-related magic or knight paths would grant greater insight.

In the volcanic crater of floor 125, cultivation of fire-related magic or knight techniques could be enhanced more quickly.

And on floor 137, a cultivation site appeared, one that was beneficial even to Carlotta.

Gazing at the cultivation site before her, Carlotta whispered softly, "Perhaps we'll need to stay here for quite some time."

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