Tower of Heaven

Atlas' training began with unfriendly words.

It was on the third day after Atlas became Alaric's "disciple."

Well, perhaps disciple was not the correct word. He agreed to teach Atlas, but he would not guide him. Atlas would only learn what he was able to learn by watching and experiencing.

He would not be babied and he would not be treated with the same resources as a disciple. Instead, if he wanted those things, then he'd have to prove himself a little more.

The only person in the clan who currently had a purely positive opinion of him was Artemia. She was their doll, so most of the clan members were also favorable towards him, but the foundation of their relationship was benefits.

Atlas was a part of a prophecy meant to lead to the Tatsuya Clan's growth. There were expectations on his shoulders because of that.

However, his relationship with them, beyond Artemia, was only for the sake of training.

Their relationship still wasn't solid enough for Atlas to trust them completely.

Because it was Artemia's family and because her father had agreed to teach him, he decided to give them a chance.

That was when the aforementioned training began.

"So you finally decided to show up."

It wasn't as if he chose to wait three days, but Atlas didn't say anything.

"Kid, do you know what the greatest lesson I learned from the Tower is?" Alaric asked. It was a rhetorical question, clearly, because he continued without waiting for an answer.

"Foundation."

It was one word followed by an explanation.

"The foundation you form in your youth is the absolute most important thing. For me and the people like me, our foundations were formed before the Tower. We did not have the opportunities that the current generation has. Because of this, those of us who stand at the peak still have not seen the top of the Tower."

"What does that mean?" Atlas asked.

"Are you stupid?" Alaric responded immediately.

"It means that no matter what we do, we cannot make it past the 85th Floor. This Tower…no more than a handful of people have received its promise and ascended to the God Realm. The rest of us are stuck. For the past 3000 years, we have been stuck, unable to cross the final boundary."

"However, don't be mistaken! I will be the one to break the boundary for you young ones, so there is no need to worry about your future. The point I was trying to make is that your foundation is horrid. Absolutely miserable. It's so bad that I almost didn't want to teach you because it's going to take such a great amount of work to fix you."

As if he didn't just drop a massive piece of information on Atlas' head, Alaric continued into a slew of insults that forced Atlas to focus on the matters at hand rather than what was mentioned.

"Excuse me?" He remarked in surprise.

Alaric shook his head and scoffed.

"Don't 'Excuse me?' me. You know it too, don't you? You have good battle sense, I'll admit it. You also don't need me to help you learn the Dao of Fire. What you need is a fundamental breakdown of your fighting style and a better understanding of how you can use your weapon."

"Until you become a Sky Sage or form your Law Sea, you will be relying on your weapon more than anything else. After that, your weapon skills will become a foundation that help you immensely in your future cultivation. From today onward, I'm going to beat into you an understanding of how you're supposed to fight. By the time we're done, you won't look so sorry anymore. How does that sound?"

He ended it with a question, but obviously, Atlas didn't have a choice. Stay connected through m-v l|e-NovelFire

From then on, he spent three hours every single day being beaten until he could barely stand.

"Chain sickles are unconventional weapons. Seriously, most people wouldn't look at farming tools and think that they'd be great for killing. There aren't many techniques that go along with a weapon like yours, which is why you're lucky that you met me."

BOOM!

The words were spoken while Atlas was being thrown into a wall.

"You probably got a good trait when you came into the Tower. Most people do. I, on the other hand, was given pure and utter bullshit. My trait is called [Weapon Master], and its use is pretty obvious."

BANG!

"What do I need weapons for? I'm a dragon, for crying out loud! Ignore that. [Weapon Master] is useless to me, but it works out quite well when I need to teach twerps like you."

"The first time I touched your weapon, I understood it. There are three things you need more than anything else."

Alaric picked Atlas up by his head and stared into his eyes menacingly.

"First, control. Second, control. Third, control. You think I'm kidding, but I am not. You need to control the movement of both chains and both blades individually, and you need to reach a state where you can control the space around you through your weapons alone."

Putting him down, he gave Atlas his first real lesson.

"You fight like you have experience in close combat with a shorter-ranged weapon, but that is not the choice you've made here. If you wish to continue using that style, then change your weapon right now while it's still early."

He was completely right. As someone who was used to fighting close combat with a greatsword, Atlas really was shabby in his control of the chain sickles. As he moved through the Tower, the way he used them became more and more useless.

As Alaric said, until his qi control was perfected, he would be using weapons as his main damage dealers. Even when he used techniques, they would perform better if released through a medium like a weapon.

'If I wish to keep using these chain sickles, then I must abandon everything I know.'

No, it wasn't just about the weapons. Atlas was leaving behind all of the skills he learned in his past life for different abilities. His overall knowledge was still useful, but he could no longer rely on the same methods from his past life.

'I have to fully embrace this new life. This is a new world that exists in the future beyond what I knew. Here, the old methods are no longer viable.'

That was the moment when Atlas' mindset changed. Rather than fighting against the progression of this life, he accepted it.

His training was far smoother after that. Like a true new cultivator who was thirsty for any knowledge they could find, Atlas soaked up everything that Alaric taught him.

Despite the fact that they focused on fist forms and pointless spars for the first few weeks, Atlas kept showing up to their training sessions and kept taking the beatings.

There were 24 hours in a day. Only three of them were dedicated to Alaric. To use the rest of his time effectively, he asked for and received access to the libraries of the Tatsuya Clan, at least some of them. He didn't want to be uninformed any longer. He had to form the same basic understanding of the world that everyone else in the Tower had.

'I came here to fill my weaknesses, so there will not be a single one left when I am done.'

With that mindset, work became pleasure. Learning became enjoyable, and even the beatings stopped hurting.

Growth.

This was the greatest pleasure of any and all cultivators.

After only some weeks, the Tatsuya Clan solidified itself as a place where Atlas could feel that pleasure more than anywhere else.