Floor 9 Chase Test

Lore & Background

In the Tower's design philosophy, the lower floors serve as a filter of fundamentals. Where Floor 1 tests raw determination and Floor 2 tests physical endurance, the Chase Test on Floor 9 introduces a temporal and spatial variable: you are no longer simply going up, you are going forward, and something is going after you. The forest is not static. Paths narrow, branches snap, the ground tilts, and the target you are chasing (or that is chasing you) seems to learn your rhythm after the first few seconds. The Tower's architects clearly wanted climbers to feel the difference between running in a straight line and running in a world that pushes back.

What makes the test quietly brutal is its psychological layer. The forest is loud—rustling, creaking, the distant thud of something large moving through the undergrowth. Climbers report that the sound alone erodes confidence before the physical strain does. The Tower does not need to show the pursuer's face; the noise is enough to make your legs stutter. Passing requires not just speed but a kind of calm, a willingness to let fear be a passenger rather than the driver.

Among the Tower's many trials, the Chase Test is often cited by veterans as the one that best predicts whether a climber will survive the mid-floor gauntlets. Those who pass it tend to carry a particular quality into higher floors: they do not flinch when the rules change mid-trial, because the forest already taught them that the rules were never fixed to begin with.

Reader's Guide

Floor 9 · Chase Test

The climber is deposited at the edge of a dense, enclosed forest. A target—typically a glowing marker, a small creature, or a point of light—is placed at a distance. The objective is simple on paper: reach or catch the target before the trial window expires. In practice, the forest is alive. Paths shift, terrain tilts, and a pursuer (a large, fast creature or a wave of force) begins closing in from behind within the first few seconds.

The unique twist is that the forest does not operate on fixed geometry. What looked like a straight path a moment ago may curve, fork, or collapse. The pursuer also adapts: it mirrors your turning pattern, so running in a straight line or repeating a pattern makes you an easy catch. Survivors describe the key as "reading the noise"—using the sound of the pursuer to judge distance and adjusting your route on the fly rather than committing to a single line.

Notable attempts: Many first-time climbers fail on their first run through, often because they turn to look behind them. The Tower does not penalize looking; it simply costs you the half-second that the pursuer needs. Those who pass tend to be those who treat the chase as a rhythm problem rather than a speed problem.

Design philosophy: The Tower uses this test to establish that climbing is not a vertical act. From Floor 9 onward, the Tower expects its climbers to think laterally, to read an environment in real time, and to maintain composure under sustained pressure. It is the first test where the Tower says, clearly: I will not be a wall you climb. I will be a world you must navigate, and it will not wait for you to catch your breath.

Did You Know?

• The Chase Test is one of the earliest trials where the Tower introduces an adaptive environment—the forest geometry is not fixed between attempts, meaning no two runs through the same floor are identical.
• Veterans of the Tower often note that the sound of the pursuer is the true timer; the forest is designed so that auditory cues become as important as visual ones, testing spatial awareness over pure speed.