In his first turn, after the systems were distributed, entities such as incarnations, spawns, mythic beasts and weapons were assigned ranks from F to A.
This was unlike the way power levels were ranked in this space however.
In the Frost Tower, power levels ranged from the first to the ninth floor.
However, outside, while A ranks were pretty much powerful, there were entities which surpassed those ranks.
The S ranks - three in total - ranged from S, to SS and the highest being SSS, which is very rare.
However, Icard, after completing the nine floors of the Frost Tower and earning the title of the Frost Sovereign, was scaled to rank amongst the SSS.
Nevertheless, he surpassed even that not long after, gaining god-tier attributes and ranks.
But then, in his regression, he lost those god-tier ranks however, leaving him only with the SSS Frost Sovereign, which was not a bad start at all.
If he could start from being an SSS rank, there was already much he was capable of and heights he would reach in no time.
"Haha" he laughed. Alyxara watched him, a smile curving her lips slightly.
"Does this really mean so much to you, Icard?" she asked.
"Huh?" Icard asked, not fully understanding her.
"You lost much more than this but you are happy with only this much" she said.
Icard looked at her calmly then sighed.
"Yeah. I thought I would have to start from scratch and pass through the trials but look--" he said.
[Eighth Floor Access Confirmed:]
[Skill Activated - Silver Black]
He activated this skill and a silver ice shard formed in his hands.
He touched it on the ground and a blackness began to spread out from where the shard made contact.
"This skill is so strong that even light is frozen. Outside, they say it's SS Rank. Although I don't care about those but--"
He then waved it.
"I once used this to defeat a plague of red ogres, which are ranked S level threats"
The shard then disappeared.
"It's definitely not up to my level before I regressed, but it's enough for now"
Alyxara smiled.
"I see" she said then chuckled, covering her mouth.
Icard's eyes narrowed. In this short time he has known her, she had been quite mischievous.
"Is something funny?" he asked.
"Pardon me. It's nothing" she replied then chuckled even more.
Icard could sense something was off. That she might be toying with him by hiding something.
He looked at his hands. 'This does feel too good to be real' he thought. 'I have to be careful'
In his first turn, after integration into the Frost Tower, Erient had told him,
"Climbing the floors of this Tower is painfully laborious. You must be prepared..."
Those words crossed Icard's mind as he left the Frost Tower and reappeared at the same spot he had been.
In the outside world, time hadn't passed at all.
His hands were still up like it was before he touched the orb. However, the orb had already disappeared.
"Huh?" the young man who had warned him earlier questioned.
All he had seen was Icard touch the orb and the orb disappearing.
Icard breathed, then looked at him and shrugged.
"What are you waiting for" he asked.
Sure enough, Eric would have been done with his as well. In his first turn, Eric didn't really hesitate to touch the orb before him.
They did so together, all out of curiosity for the floating ball of light
"What happened?" one of them asked. "It just disappeared"
"You should touch one too" Icard said.
"Hey, Eric! What happened!"
Icard looked beside him and Eric was down.
Sure enough he had touched an orb already. And like in Icard's previous turn, Eric had been overwhelmed. Not by the bizarre things they were seeing around them but by what his Keeper had put him through.
"You're okay, Eric" Icard said. Eric looked at him then
"You've done it. You've completed yours. It has ended" Icard said.
Eric stared at him for a moment then he looked away.
'He's still shocked. I wonder just what his Keeper made him pass through' Icard thought to himself.
Actually, his progress was much simpler and smooth. But for others, it would be much tougher. Although it depended on the kind of Keeper one was chosen by.
Icard looked around him. Because of Eric's reaction, they hesitated to touch theirs.
He had to persuade them without sounding weird.
"Hey, everyone" he called to them. "If you don't touch those orbs, you will all die" Icard said with all gravity, and all of them stiffened.
'Damn it' he said in his thoughts. 'I didn't want to sound weird but this is all I could come up with'
"We will all die? What do you mean?" Rey asked with a frown.
"You heard what that thing said" Icard replied, referring to Aksalep as the 'thing'. "There's something coming our way and these orbs are our only chance against them" he said.
"All you need to do is touch them. Then you'll understand"
"Did you touch one?" she asked again.
"Yeah" Icard said then raised his right arm up. "I just did"
However, they still hesitated.
'I'll have to show them, I guess' he thought to himself.
"Look, this is what I got from it" he said then raised his right hand toward them.
[First Floor Access Confirmed]
[Skill Activated: Snow Vine]
Then his hand turned white and cold, mist exuding from it. Everyone could feel the chill from it, including Eric.
Icard looked down at him.
"You can do it too, Eric. Don't you see, your hands are burning already"
"Huh?" Eric muttered then looked at his hand, enveloped by a crimson flame. He had activated it without knowing.
"Kyaaaa!" he yelled, causing a commotion within their group as they tried to help him put it out.
But they couldn't, not with the blankets they used which only got burnt.
It took a while before Eric realised his hands weren't really burning.
Icard looked at Eric dryly.
'He probably got burnt a lot in his Keeper's space' Icard thought to himself.
"It's--not hurting you?" the same guy who was near them on the truck said, coming closer to take a good look.
"No--not actually" Eric muttered, staring at his hands. "It doesn't hurt now"
'Yeah. He's not worried about being cremated. It's the pain. He definitely passed through a lot' Icard thought.
'It's good that he's really strong. If he lost himself to the pain, his Keeper would have just gotten rid of him'
People's attention had been drawn to the commotion.
"This is the means we have to fight those things out there" Icard said.
"Magic?" a lady amongst them asked, her eyes locked on Icard's strange hand in awe.
"Kinda" Icard replied. Although he couldn't really say it was.
Convinced, Icard's group moved to touch the orbs before them hesitantly.
"It might hurt a bit though" Icard muttered.
After passing through the Spacekeeper and getting selected by their Keepers, their trials would begin.
After which their keepers would give them all the information they needed.
And like earlier, all everyone saw were people touching orbs that just disappeared the moment they were touched.
They did the same. More and more people touching the orbs before them and awakening.
The white lights that had studded the city after Aksalep left were now disappearing rapidly and soon enough, almost all of them were gone--almost everyone was awakened.
It was this change would automatically start their first test.
"It's gonna begin any moment now" Icard said to himself.
"What now" Reya asked, overhearing Icard. She had returned, not quite as shook as Eric. And so were the rest of them.
Now, questions weren't really being asked. They had already been introduced and integrated into their respective spaces.
"I don't know" Icard replied to Reya. "We should just wait"
A short moment passed and they heard a rumbling sound.
"What's that?" people questioned.
Icard knew what to expect already. He stood, facing the same direction they were coming from. The sky.
"Skydarts" he muttered.
The Beasts of the apocalypse were called Spawns and there were numerous kinds of spawns.
These ones were called Skydarts. One of the few Spawn types that could enter a Maire's territory, mostly without the Maire's notice.
They were F rank spawns though with low intelligence. Albeit, there were Skydart strains that were up to E rank.
The Spawns screeched loudly as they passed through what looked like a transparent barrier.
In great numbers, they darted to the earth and landed at random places, cratering the earth as they landed.
Their bodies were like bats, much ferocious, wild and half the size of humans.
A notification then appeared before Icard.
[Spawn Detected:]
[Name: Skydart]
[Spawn Threat level: F rank]
[Quest Level: Plague]
[Quest: Survive The Plague]