Dimensional Keeper: All My Skills Are at Level 100 Chapter 1478 A Bet!
Previously on Dimensional Keeper: All My Skills Are at Level 100...
It was Mathew who responded, wearing that relaxed, leisurely smile typical of a person who'd long accepted that his beliefs wouldn't always win widespread approval.
"For any other disciple, certainty wouldn't come so easily," he explained, his words flowing with the steady assurance of someone drawing from solid proof instead of mere emotion, "but our faith in Max is total. He'll breeze past the eightieth floor with little trouble."
Scarcely had the statement hung in the air when the other family heads started nodding in sequence, their consensus silent yet firm. Garry, who harbored no fondness for Max, gave a slight bow of agreement too.
This wasn't feigned excitement to please each other. Every one had reached this conclusion based on personal insights, painting a portrait of Max that shattered the usual molds they applied to clan disciples.
They'd seen him overcome prodigies in the late stages of the Rebirth Realm, foes whose superior cultivation should've overwhelmed him utterly when he lingered at the Divine Rank.
Such victories came not from fortune or fleeting luck that could be brushed off, but from his raw power.
With his breakthrough to the third level of the Rebirth Realm, the family heads deemed it perfectly logical for him to conquer the eightieth floor of the combat tower without breaking a sweat. Regarding further heights he might scale, they refrained from guessing, a choice rooted in experience rather than lack of knowledge.
They'd discovered the pitfalls of capping Max's potential. During the Path to Eternal Flames trial, each had harbored unspoken limits in their minds, envisioning some point where he'd hit an unbreakable barrier—and all those notions crumbled almost instantly.
He'd surged past obstacles deemed insurmountable, doing so smoothly without the fierce battles that might've softened their misjudgments, leaving them speechless beyond their own forecasts.
That ordeal had forever altered their view of him. Max defied the metrics they employed for others.
He didn't follow the talent trajectories they knew, avoiding the rises and stalls their expertise predicted, so they'd quietly abandoned forecasts of his limits and opted to observe wherever he decided to venture.
"The eightieth floor?"
Joe's shock rang true, and briefly he gaped at the family heads, expecting a chuckle to reveal it as mere hyperbole. But no such retraction came. He mulled the idea repeatedly, yet it stubbornly eluded any sense of plausibility.
Had Max reached the ninth or tenth level of the Rebirth Realm, Joe might've considered it without much pushback. A cultivator at such a stage facing the eightieth floor presented a debatable case, a test teetering on the fringes of what skill and aptitude could feasibly achieve.
Yet Max stood merely at the third level. That stage of the Rebirth Realm hardly served as a springboard for tackling the eightieth floor of any challenge.
From Joe's seasoned perspective, someone at that cultivation phase would battle fiercely just to bridge the thirtieth and fortieth floors, emerging with a harsh lesson in their boundaries.
Picturing that same individual attaining the eightieth floor wasn't bold ambition. To Joe, it verged on outright delusion.
"Elder Joe," Mathew Grimes remarked, his grin resurfacing with a casual warmth that implied he viewed the elder's doubt as entertaining rather than insulting, "it looks like you doubt Max will pass the eightieth floor."
"I won't buy what any of you claim," Joe shot back, inclining his head with the resolute, measured conviction of a veteran who'd observed countless ascents and stumbles in towers like this, prioritizing his evaluation over feelings or ties. "My judgment says Max won't reach the eightieth floor."
Mathew Grimes allowed the statement to echo, then flashed that knowing, subtle smile reserved for one who'd anticipated precisely that retort. It unfolded slowly and cunningly, signaling he'd plotted the follow-up well in advance. "How about we wager on it?" he suggested.
Joe's gaze sharpened just a touch. "What kind of wager?"
"Nothing complicated," Mathew replied, his voice light and chatty like he was outlining a straightforward deal. "Should Max surpass the eightieth floor, our two groups will host yearly exchanges among our disciples from now on. It'll happen every year no matter the results, a permanent pact between the Black Dragon Clan and the Violet Star Palace. And if Max fails to pass the eightieth floor, you can request whatever you want from the Black Dragon Clan, and we'll strive to grant it."
Joe didn't agree right away. He weighed the proposal thoroughly, probing its key facets.
His persistent query circled back to how the Black Dragon Clan's family heads summoned such boldness to risk anything on Max conquering the eightieth floor with only third-level Rebirth Realm cultivation.
They possessed—or thought they did—some insight into Max that bred unshakable trust he couldn't grasp, and he struggled to follow the reasoning elevating their target to eighty.
Conversely, the downside of defeat posed minimal concern. Committing to annual disciple exchanges between their factions amounted to scant cost for the Violet Star Palace.
In reality, it demanded almost no sacrifice and brought benefits he fully comprehended.
The Black Dragon Clan ranked low among third-rate powers in the Divine Realm, its feeblest entry, whereas the Violet Star Palace thrived as a top contender in that category.
The disparity stood evident and accepted. For Black Dragon Clan disciples, facing off routinely against Violet Star Palace cultivators would prove immensely beneficial.
It'd introduce them to superior methods and power, compel acknowledgment of the gap to their tier's elite, and deepen their grasp of elite cultivation through hands-on rivalry.
Joe grasped the intent plainly. The Black Dragon Clan didn't seek this exchange from hubris. They offered it knowing their disciples required such sparks for progress, tying it to Max's combat tower feat because their absolute conviction in his success—still jarring to Joe—promised the gain.
As he pondered the wager, Max cleared the 20th floor and stepped into the 21st. His swift climb through the combat tower's levels left most disciples utterly perplexed.