A moment of silence.
Unlike before, this time the response did not come immediately.
[Comparing records.]
[—]
[Transmutation Core confirmed.]
“…Transmutation Core?”
At Lumina’s answer, Jin-woo blinked for a moment.
‘That’s a name I’ve never heard before.’
Before Regression, he had climbed as far as the ninety-eighth floor and seen almost every kind of core.
But this—
even the name was unfamiliar.
‘It isn’t that I missed it… the access conditions were different from the start.’
As if picking up from Jin-woo’s mutter, Lumina’s report calmly continued.
[Arcanis Legacy]
[Resource transmutation device]
[Linkage with Magic Tower-based system possible]
“…Transmutation device?”
Jin-woo’s gaze turned back to the core.
Its round shape.
He understood why it had looked like an egg.
But now that he looked again, rather than a living egg—
‘It’s a completely sealed device.’
There were no gaps on its surface, and he could not see any structure that received external input.
As if it were a single system completed in itself.
“So it was a device.”
Jin-woo let out a short breath.
Not a living creature, but a device.
That actually made it more dangerous.
There was no room for jokes like ‘can I eat it?’
Right now, that was not the issue.
BEEP—
The moment the warning sounded, the texture of the Magic Tower’s energy ‘snapped’ once.
The mana flowing along the wall scattered, and the ground beneath his feet trembled faintly.
The linkage had begun.
“…What?”
Jin-woo’s body stiffened reflexively.
At the same time, the Transmutation Core placed on top of the circular device began to tremble faintly, as if resonating.
The light flowing along its surface repeatedly brightened and darkened, as if it were breathing.
[Core linkage beginning.]
[Records remaining in the core secured.]
“Records?”
Jin-woo narrowed his eyes and looked at the core.
[The Transmutation Core cannot be operated as a ‘standalone device.’]
“…Then?”
He carefully reached out.
The moment he placed his hand on the Transmutation Core—
Rrrr.
A faint tremor traveled through his palm.
It was neither cold nor hot.
But he could definitely feel it.
‘…It feels alive.’
His palm tingled unpleasantly.
It was a device, yet it felt like something that was not a device.
[Operation requires a dedicated device.]
[Outputting blueprint.]
As soon as Lumina finished speaking—
Flash.
A hologram unfolded before Jin-woo’s eyes.
A three-dimensional blueprint.
Intricately intertwined magic circuits, energy flows, stabilizing-fluid devices.
And beneath them, a densely listed set of materials.
“…This is pretty serious.”
It was not a simple auxiliary device.
It was a blueprint that handled part of the Magic Tower’s core system.
He could feel that saying the Arcanist had made it personally was no exaggeration.
“If I make this….”
Jin-woo asked without taking his eyes off the blueprint.
“That means I can use this thing called the Transmutation Core, right?”
[Affirmative.]
“…Then.”
Jin-woo raised his head and looked at Lumina.
“What can I do with it?”
The Transmutation Core.
A completely new device he had never seen before, even before Regression.
If it was on this scale, there had to be a reward great enough to come with a price.
A moment later.
[Outputting records.]
[Resource Transmutation System available.]
“…Resource transmutation?”
[Specific resources can be converted into other resources.]
For a moment, Jin-woo was speechless.
“…It can change resources?”
This was not refining or processing.
“It skips the Tower’s route…?”
It did not break the rules.
It created a path outside the rules.
“That’s… possible?”
[Possible.]
[Maximum daily transmutation amount: 500g.]
‘500g is… enough.’
If the conditions were right—
it meant he could at least touch materials that had been ‘impossible to access’ in the first place.
‘This opens up areas I couldn’t even lay a hand on until now.’
The corners of Jin-woo’s mouth slowly lifted.
“500g a day is… enough.”
At least, it was enough to start.
He looked down at the Transmutation Core once more.
A silent device.
But inside it, a possibility that could twist the Tower’s rules was surely sleeping.
‘I can see why this room was hidden now.’
Jin-woo quietly exhaled.
“Good.”
There was only one choice now.
“I’m… making this.”
Jin-woo slowly examined the blueprint.
Line by line.
Familiar Magic Engineering formulas and structures he was seeing for the first time were mixed together.
“…This.”
He narrowed his brow.
“It isn’t as simple as I thought.”
He could feel the difficulty.
Even before Regression, he could barely find Magic Engineering devices of this level only after passing the thirtieth floor.
[Correct.]
[Design difficulty: High Arcanist Grade.]
[Current Grade error tolerance: extremely low.]
[Possibility of Transmutation Core damage upon crafting failure: high.]
“What happens if it’s damaged?”
[Probability of irreparable damage: 68%.]
[Reason: circuit backflow may occur if damaged during core-based linkage.]
[Potential effect on Magic Tower-based system: present.]
For a moment, Jin-woo lost his words.
This was not simple crafting.
He recalled a similar case from before Regression.
An incident where an entire territory had been contaminated because someone had forced a resource-type device to run.
Back then too, someone had gotten greedy for ‘just a little more.’
“If I touch it now, it’ll blow.”
Jin-woo closed the hologram blueprint.
Not now.
He lacked materials, preparation, and understanding.
He looked at the Transmutation Core again.
A silent device.
The possibility sleeping inside it was more dangerous and valuable than any reward he had obtained so far.
“Once I’m ready.”
Jin-woo muttered lowly.
“Let’s try changing this Magic Tower’s rules first.”
His gaze, which had been scanning the blueprint, stopped.
It was a material not found on the first floor.
“…So it’s telling me to go outside.”
Jin-woo checked the blueprint again.
Mining would not work.
Now, he had to go find it himself.
***
《DAY -8 ended.》
《Survival EXP accumulates.》
“Ugh….”
Jin-woo pushed himself up from the bed.
As soon as he opened his eyes, the fact that another day had begun hit him first.
He wet his face while conserving water, then chewed and swallowed a compressed nutrition block.
A cold sensation and a foul taste surged in at the same time.
Squish.
“…I can’t get used to this taste, no matter how much time passes.”
[That is—]
“I know. Taste isn’t a consideration.”
He cut Lumina off with a curt reply and turned away.
Complaints ended here.
Time was always lacking, and the work he had to do was already set.
Morning meant mining.
Jin-woo headed straight down to the mine.
CLANG—!
The sound of metal striking bedrock rang out.
《Tool Sense assists you.》
Level 5.
And a newly acquired skill.
The movement of his hands was different.
Even without using force, the angle set itself, and his movements grew shorter.
In just a few hours, he had thirty-five Mana Stones.
“……It really is different.”
Jin-woo let out a short breath and smiled in satisfaction.
“Now it feels like I have a little leeway.”
He loaded the Mana Stones onto the cart and returned to the Main Room.
He fed Mana Stones into the fuel tank one by one.
[Energy charging]
[Remaining Energy: 89%]
Ding!
《Magic Tower Stability: 36%》
《Unstable maintenance in progress》
Jin-woo brushed the dust from his clothes.
One task for today was finished.
Now came the next step.
“Lumina. Show me the blueprint again.”
[Outputting blueprint.]
A translucent blueprint unfolded before his eyes.
Jin-woo took in the structure at a glance.
The Transmutation Core device.
It was the facility he needed in order to move toward the stage of ‘running’ the Magic Tower.
“The materials are…….”
Jin-woo’s gaze moved down the list.
Iron.
Mana Stones.
Mana Crystal Fluid.
For that much, scraping together what was inside the Magic Tower would be enough.
The problem was what came next.
“……Britel’s Powder?”
A name he had never seen before.
It immediately gave off the feeling of ‘a dedicated material used only in the Magic Tower.’
And a bad feeling crossed his mind.
“What is this?”
[Searching records.]
[Britel’s Powder: core material for the Transmutation Core.]
[Used in the Transmutation Core’s output stabilizing fluid.]
Jin-woo rubbed his chin.
It was a material he did not remember.
“This isn’t in the Magic Tower, is it?”
[Affirmative.]
He had expected it, but it was not pleasant to hear.
On top of that, judging by the explanation, this material was the key.
“Then what if I make it without this?”
[Output instability detected.]
[Possibility of energy runaway: high.]
“……So it explodes.”
Not good.
A very bad option.
Jin-woo immediately asked the next question.
“Substitute material?”
A brief silence.
It was Lumina’s processing wait time.
[Search complete.]
[Substitute material confirmed.]
[Ritual Ash.]
“Ritual Ash?”
[Affirmative.]
[Ritual Ash is an inferior substitute for Britel’s Powder.]
[Output stability is low, but Transmutation Core operation is possible.]
“……In that case.”
The corners of Jin-woo’s mouth slowly lifted.
He did not know what Britel’s Powder was or how to obtain it.
But if it was Ritual Ash, the story changed.
‘If it’s the first floor… I can go there right now.’
Jin-woo’s thoughts naturally turned to the lower floor.
The first floor.
Goblin territory.
And among them, there was a peculiar individual that used rituals.
‘A Goblin Shaman.’
A kind of variant Goblin.
They were bastards who handled rituals instead of magic.
‘Every time they used a ritual, they left ash behind.’
Before Regression.
Jin-woo had seen that scene himself many times.
[Recommendation: immediate acquisition possible.]
[However, risk of pursuit increases upon initiating combat on the first floor.]
“No.”
Jin-woo shook his head.
He had no intention of moving in haste.
‘Right now, I’m Level 5. I can handle Goblins just fine.’
However,
the problem came after the battle.
Goblins were persistent.
If they learned Jin-woo was on the first floor, they would try to find him and kill him by any means possible.
‘If I’m discovered, this whole life here collapses.’
It was still time to strengthen his foundations.
He had no desire to create needless trouble and waste time.
[Then….]
“I wait for the right time.”
Right now, ‘minimizing exposure’ came before ‘victory.’
That did not mean he intended to simply sit idle.
In the meantime, Jin-woo planned to make other devices first.
Time was short.
And for two days, Jin-woo all but chopped his sleep into pieces to use it.
Mining, organizing, circuit checks.
Even while repeating the same work, he did not allow a single mistake.
《Magic Tower Stability: 36%》
《Unstable maintenance in progress》
The number did not change.
If he stopped working, it could not hold out.
But if he overdid it, it would collapse.
‘I have to stay exactly on the line.’
Jin-woo did not stop his hands.
Sleep, mining, circuits. He repeated only those three things.
And once his preparations were finished, ‘Should I go get it now?’
Ritual Ash.
That was when Jin-woo tried to leave the Magic Tower.
Ding!
《Temporary Administrator has left the Magic Tower.》
《Post Abandonment penalty applied.》
“…So if I go out now, I get a penalty.”