《DAY -10 ended.》
《Survival EXP accumulates.》
“I finish it today.”
Jin-woo naturally nodded.
The time had come.
He had not been idle all this time.
Aside from the Ritual Ash, the Transmutation Core device was already complete to some degree.
By feel, about half.
‘I wanted to finish the whole thing, but….’
It was not easy.
There were dozens of magic circuits he had to draw.
The problem was making those circuits circulate without colliding.
‘Perfect way to lose hair.’
It was precision work.
If even a little part went wrong, he had to redraw the whole thing.
‘I’ll finish it after I get back.’
The conclusion was simple.
First, he would fill in the missing material.
“Then…….”
The moment Jin-woo stepped forward to leave the Magic Tower—
Ding!
《Temporary Administrator has left the Magic Tower.》
《Post Abandonment penalty applied.》
The message window caught his step.
“…So if I go out now, I get a penalty.”
Jin-woo furrowed his brow.
“…I didn’t expect this.”
It was unexpected.
“What kind of penalty?”
As if answering Jin-woo’s question,
《Magic Tower Stability decreases by 1% every 10 minutes.》
“…….”
Jin-woo looked dumbfounded.
The stability he had worked so hard to raise would decrease.
This was no different from telling him not to leave.
“What if I return?”
《Recovery possible upon Temporary Administrator’s return.》
‘So if I come back, it recovers?’
In short, it meant he should not leave the Magic Tower empty for long while he was only a Temporary Administrator.
‘It’s outside. I have to go out.’
He had 110 minutes left.
If he could not return within that time, it was over.
He had to return to the Magic Tower within that window.
“I’m going out.”
He made his decision.
Jin-woo immediately left the Magic Tower.
At a point somewhat far from the Tower,Jin-woo unconsciously opened his mouth.
“Lumina.”
It was a name that came out reflexively.
But no answer came back.
“…This is a bit disappointing.”
The connection had been cut.
The sounds around him grew louder.
‘I’m not going out alone next time.’
He cut off the thought.
His stance changed.
Here, one wrong sound would be no different from leaking the Magic Tower’s coordinates.
From here on, he could not make a mistake.
《Magic Tower Stability declining.》
‘I hurry.’
He moved while avoiding encounters with Goblins as much as possible.
Unnecessary combat was forbidden.
His objective was clear.
‘The settlement.’
The place where a Goblin Shaman was most likely to be.
Jin-woo examined the terrain.
He moved behind rocks, through the shadows of collapsed structures, and between bushes.
He shortened his stride, and whenever he crossed an open area, he ran in short bursts while holding even his breath.
Before long, the air changed.
‘……It’s here.’
A stench that pierced his nose.
The fishy afterscent unique to burnt bones and blood.
And crudely erected totems.
Structures made of wood and bone were arranged in a circle.
It was a Goblin settlement.
Jin-woo pressed himself behind a boulder and held his breath.
At the center of the settlement, he could see an altar.
And near it, one silhouette that was clearly different from the other Goblins.
Feathers and bone ornaments.
Ritual patterns wrapped around its body.
‘…It’s the Shaman.’
He confirmed the target.
Now, all that remained was to approach without being noticed.
***
Before Regression.
Jin-woo still had not forgotten that day.
‘The moon rises in the Tower too.’
Before Regression, on the tenth night.
He had realized it when he saw the full moon filling the sky.
‘The Shaman’s ritual takes place on the day of the full moon.’
That day was today.
The inside of the settlement was noisy.
The Goblins were moving busily.
They were preparing for the ritual.
At times like this, the outer guard grew loose.
This was the moment Jin-woo had been waiting for.
-Screech!
-Chitter!
The guards appeared.
‘Two.’
Normally, there would have been five in that spot.
They were definitely short on numbers.
‘Good.’
Jin-woo picked up a small pebble from the ground.
Then he threw it to the opposite side of the settlement, just enough to make “both guards move at the same time.”
Tap-!
A subtle but definite sound.
-Screech?
-Chitter!
The two guards turned their heads at the same time.
After hesitating briefly, both of them moved toward the sound.
He did not miss that opening.
With his body lowered, Jin-woo slipped into the shadows.
Inside the settlement.
Flimsily built huts stood in a row.
He hid himself behind one of them.
When the guards returned, he needed a ‘reference point’ that would cut off their line of sight.
-SKREECH!
-Screech!
At the center of the settlement, the Goblins had formed a circle.
They were piling up wood, bones, and pieces of stone.
A ritual altar.
‘The timing is incredible.’
《Magic Tower Stability: 34%》
《Continuously declining.》
‘Let’s hurry.’
Jin-woo caught his breath and moved between the huts.
Where the Goblins’ gazes flowed, and when they turned their heads.
He knew all of it.
It was a pattern he had experienced countless times.
At the innermost part of the settlement, he saw a place larger than the other huts, with strange decorations attached to it.
Bone ornaments.
Feathers.
Blackened totems.
‘That’s it.’
The Goblin Shaman’s hut.
Jin-woo stopped briefly in front of it.
A low muttering leaked from inside.
The ritual had not started yet.
‘Now.’
Entrusting his body to the shadows, he carefully slipped inside the hut.
Then he assessed the situation.
‘The Ritual Ash is… inside.’
There was only one problem.
The Goblin Shaman.
The method was simple.
‘Draw only the Shaman outside.’
Jin-woo took a compressed nutrition block from his chest.
He waited for a moment when everyone’s attention had shifted toward the firelight and shouting, when he would not be noticed even if he ‘threw it roughly.’
He flicked it in that direction.
Thud.
-Screech?
-Gack?
The Goblins turned their heads at the same time.
One picked up the compressed nutrition block that had fallen to the ground, sniffed it, then—
took one bite.
-SKREECH!
A scream burst out.
It was a sound of genuine agony.
The other Goblins, curious, each took a bite as well, then reacted the same way one after another.
-Screech!
-SKREECH!
‘As expected.’
Jin-woo nodded.
‘I’m not the only one who thinks it tastes awful.’
That fact was strangely comforting.
-Scree!
Hearing the commotion, the Goblin Shaman emerged from the hut.
Then it approached the Goblins screaming in agony.
‘Now.’
Jin-woo did not delay.
Using that opening, he slipped into the hut.
There was no need to search long for what he wanted.
The Ritual Ash to be used in the ritual had already been prepared and placed there.
He opened an old leather pouch.
‘This much is enough.’
There was plenty.
After taking only what he needed, Jin-woo swept his eyes over the surroundings once more.
‘……Nothing.’
There was only useless junk.
This was not a situation where he could be greedy.
He had to get out before the Goblin Shaman returned.
Then—
“Oops.”
Jin-woo stopped walking.
He coated his fingertip with the remaining Mana Crystal Fluid.
Mana Crystal Fluid was not a material used only to draw ‘circuits.’
If a surface accepted mana, it could engrave something as small as a short sentence.
And on the table, he briefly carved a message.
‘This should be enough to piss it off.’
As if nothing had happened, Jin-woo disappeared back into the shadows.
***
-To make a fuss over something so trivial….
The Goblin Shaman grumbled as it returned inside the hut.
Then it spat on the floor.
Ptoo—
-Gack! Truly, that was a horrible taste!
It had never encountered such an object before.
It was bad enough that it never wanted to put it in its mouth again.
-Hoo… enough of this pointless commotion.
-Now I have to finish preparing for the ritual.
Today was an important day.
It was the night of the full moon.
The ritual had to succeed.
The moment its gaze moved toward the table—
-…Hm?
The Goblin Shaman’s movements stopped.
Something that should definitely have been there was nowhere to be seen.
-My pouch…?
A brief silence.
Then the inside of the hut was turned upside down.
-No, this makes no sense!
-Where did my Ritual Ash go?!
Under the bed.
Behind the totems.
Even inside the jars.
But the pouch containing the Ritual Ash never appeared.
-Do you know how hard I worked to make that?!
-It’s essential for the ritual!!
The Goblin Shaman’s face twisted with rage.
The Ritual Ash was the core of the ritual.
Without it, today’s ritual could not even begin.
-What bastard could have…!!
For a moment, silence flowed through the hut.
That was when it happened.
On the table.
There were words written there that had not existed before it went outside.
-…What is this?
The Goblin Shaman carefully checked it.
Unknown characters were written there.
[The righteous thief was here.]
-…….
It had no idea what the meaning was.
It was not a ritual pattern, nor was it Goblin writing.
However.
-They made it so I can’t even read it, and left it here on purpose…?
The Goblin Shaman’s hands trembled with rage.
-How dare….
-How dare they ruin my ritual and leave something like this…!!
The next moment.
-SKREEEEEE—!!
A roar of rage rang throughout the entire settlement.
On a night when the full moon had risen,
the ritual ended without even beginning.
And the cause of all that chaos was already quietly returning to the Magic Tower.
He had stolen only what he needed.
‘If those bastards complete their ritual, it’ll eventually come back to me.’
‘So this isn’t stealing. It’s preemptive cleanup.’
Justice for operating the Magic Tower.
Put nicely, that was what it was—
and in the end, it was a calculation for survival.
《Magic Tower Stability: 31%》
‘Let’s get back quickly.’
***
Jin-woo returned to the Magic Tower.
“Lumina.”
[Temporary Administrator confirmed.]
A short response.
Only then did part of the weight in his chest ease.
Only ten days.
And yet Lumina had already become one axis of his ‘judgment.’
Because when he had been alone outside the Tower, he had felt that difference far too clearly.
‘Now… I can’t think without including it.’
At the same time—
Ding!
《Temporary Administrator’s return confirmed.》
《Magic Tower Stability: 28%》
《Stability recovering.》
The falling Magic Tower Stability gradually began to recover as well.
It had dropped by as much as 8% while he had been out for a short while.
‘Next time I need to go out, I’ll have to plan much more carefully.’
Jin-woo forced himself to calmly organize his thoughts.
“I’m back. Take a look at this.”
As he entered the Main Room, he took out the Ritual Ash he had hidden inside his clothes.
Blackish-red powder scattered faintly over his palm.
“What do you think? Does it seem possible with this?”
Light flowed out from the wall of the Magic Tower.
A scanning beam swept once over the Ritual Ash.
[67% similarity to Britel’s Powder found.]
[Grade: D.]
[Reduced output stability and increased loss rate expected.]
[Number of activations must be limited.]
“I know.”
Jin-woo nodded.
“There’s nothing I can do about it.”
This was the only material he could obtain on the first floor.
If he wanted better material, the answer lay only on the upper floors.
‘At least the tenth floor.’
But the problem came after that.
‘If I go up… I can’t come back down.’
The Tower’s basic rule.
There had not been a single exception.
‘I can’t abandon the Magic Tower.’
This place was a shelter, a facility, and survival itself.
Losing the Magic Tower meant returning to being bare-handed again.
“…I’m stuck.”
Jin-woo rubbed his chin.
“Lumina.”
[Yes.]
“Just in case.”
He paused to choose his words, then asked carefully.
“Is there any way to go up the Tower… and then come back down?”
Before Regression, countless Hunters had devoted their lives to researching that topic.
The conclusion had always been the same.
Impossible.
But the situation was different now.
The Arcanist’s Magic Tower.
And Lumina.
‘Just… on the off chance.’
A short silence passed.
It was Lumina’s calculation wait time.
The next moment—
[Possible.]
“…What?”