Jin-woo approached the Magic Engineering device.
Then he skillfully disassembled the device and examined the internal circuits.
《You have used Magic Engineering.》
Blue light gathered.
With the skill assisting him, Jin-woo grasped the situation quickly.
‘I think I can fix the circuits somehow….’
“Can this core nucleus… even be fixed?”
Magic Engineering was assisting him, but he could not even get a feel for how to repair the core nucleus.
[Searching….]
[Emergency treatment possible.]
“Emergency treatment?”
[Complete repair impossible.]
[One-time operation possible.]
[Core nucleus damage rate after activation: sharp increase.]
[Reactivation before next storm cycle cannot be guaranteed.]
“One time is enough.”
Jin-woo’s resolve was firm.
“One time is enough. Just this storm.”
He would live now.
He would put out the urgent fire first.
‘I’ll think about later, later.’
Right now, he focused on the present.
“So, the materials?”
[Searching required materials]
A moment later, Lumina answered.
[Substitute material: Ritual Catalyst Core]
Jin-woo narrowed his eyes.
That was a material he knew as well.
‘It’s one of the materials that becomes easy to get after climbing just a little.’
A Ritual Catalyst Core was a consumable material used when crafting items.
Once he reached the third floor, there would be more than enough ways to obtain one.
The problem was.
‘Right now, I’m on the first floor.’
A section where his options were reduced to extremes.
But that did not mean there was no way.
[Entity possessing Ritual Catalyst Core: Goblin Shaman.]
The answer he had expected.
Jin-woo let out a short breath and muttered, “Right. It’s there.”
The first-floor Goblin settlement.
The Goblin Shaman at its center.
An existence he had encountered countless times and killed countless times before the Regression.
“I’m going to the settlement.”
It was time to become a righteous thief once again.
***
The Goblin settlement.
The Goblin Shaman was looking down at the empty space before the altar with faintly trembling hands.
-It was definitely… here just a moment ago?
The top of the altar.
The Ritual Catalyst Core that should have been there had disappeared.
And that was not all.
-The Ritual Ash is all gone too!
It had been there….
Now it was gone.
Everything he had spent days struggling to prepare!
The Goblins nearby went wild.
-The ritual is ruined!
-It is an ill omen!!
-The god must be angry because the previous ritual failed!
The Goblins fell into panic.
Well, of course.
The most important catalyst for the ritual had disappeared.
That meant.
-The next ritual will fail too!! Divine punishment will fall upon us!!
Two ritual failures.
That was a humiliation that would remain long within the Goblin tribe.
The Goblin Shaman clenched his fists.
-Grrrkk-!
And there was writing on the altar again.
[The righteous thief was here. Round 2]
[※ Revisit planned]
Of course, the Goblin Shaman could not understand what it meant.
To him, this was,
a curse.
***
《DAY -23 ended.》
《Survival EXP accumulates.》
The twenty-third day since the Regression.
Five days until the storm.
“Lumina. Until the storm.”
[Mana Storm occurrence: 5 days.]
Five days.
A length of time that made the word “preparation” feel meaningless.
A length of time not enough even if he ground down an entire day.
‘No time to rest.’
Jin-woo moved his hands again.
《You have used Magic Engineering.》
He poured in all the materials at once.
Mana Crystal Fluid, Mana Stones, iron plates—every reserve he had.
The reserves he had carefully stockpiled with the Transmutation Core- today, he burned them all.
“The circuits… are half dead.”
《Tool Sense assists you.》
Holding his enhanced engineering tools, Jin-woo connected the severed magic circuits one by one.
Carefully.
Yet without hesitation.
What could be fixed, he fixed.
What could not be fixed—he discarded.
Save what could be saved. If it could not be saved, cut it out.
“Lumina. If I remove this part, operation won’t be a problem, right?”
[Operation probability slightly decreases.]
[Energy consumption increases.]
“That much doesn’t matter.”
If he tried to prioritize efficiency—he would die before it ever became perfect.
It was fine if it was incomplete.
As long as his hands could move, he could survive.
With his teeth clenched, Jin-woo kept his hands moving without rest.
Like that, a day was ground away.
《DAY -24 ended.》
《Survival EXP accumulates.》
《DAY -25 ended.》
《Survival EXP accumulates.》
CLACK— CLACK—!
Each time metal rang, the inside of the Magic Tower vibrated as if its insides were hollow.
Jin-woo clung to the device almost without rest.
Then, suddenly, one edge of his vision blurred and shook.
“Urgh—!”
His body swayed for an instant.
[Fatigue accumulation.]
[Overwork state detected.]
[Death risk increased.]
[Immediate rest recommended.]
Lumina’s voice was still dry.
But the warning sound rang once more.
Jin-woo leaned against the device for a moment and steadied his breathing.
“I… would like to do that too.”
He raised his head and looked at the Barrier Generator he was repairing.
He had still not even repaired half of it.
The materials were decreasing rapidly, and his tools were also approaching their limits.
On top of that.
As expected of a Magic Engineering device designed by the Arcanist, the structure was complex, and far too enormous to handle alone.
‘If this were before the Regression….’
Back then, there had been hands.
There had been division of labor, and people to fill in the gaps.
But now, there was only one pair of hands.
“Whew….”
Jin-woo slowly clenched his fist.
But there was also no one to shoulder the danger in his place.
All of it was his share.
“…Right.”
Muttering lowly, Jin-woo picked up his tool again.
“Right now, I have to do it all.”
He steadied his breathing.
Then he pushed his hand back into the inside of the Barrier Generator.
In order to live.
***
[Mana Storm occurrence: 12 hours.]
Lumina’s voice rang out quietly.
At that sound, Jin-woo forced his curled-up body upright as if waking from unconsciousness.
His eyelids were heavy, and his entire body sagged like lead.
“……Finally.”
The Barrier Generator repairs were complete.
He had kept alive as many circuits as he could, and boldly cut away what had to be discarded.
It was far from perfect.
Strictly speaking, it was closer to a stopgap repair.
‘Materials, time… everything was lacking.’
This much was something to be grateful for.
“How is it?”
[Incomplete.]
[Repair Rate: 10.95%.]
[Operation threshold reached.]
[Within limits for one storm.]
[Only single-use defense possible.]
[Additional reinforcement recommended: impossible.]
Jin-woo breathed out shortly.
“Barely scraping by.”
He raised his head.
“What if we use it consecutively?”
[Under identical conditions, reuse causes Magic Tower structural stability to plummet.]
[Collapse risk sharply increases.]
“…Better not do that, then.”
One time.
He only had to get through this one time.
He still did not know why the cycle had become faster than before the Regression.
But one thing was certain.
[Residual mana reaccumulation forecast: minimum 30 days.]
“One month.”
With that much time, he could prepare properly, not by grinding away his life like this time.
Jin-woo slowly clenched his stiff hands.
“Damn it….”
He muttered softly.
“Before the Regression or now… the shitty parts never change.”
Before the Regression.
It was when he had still been staying on the lower floors.
When he experienced a Mana Storm for the first time, he had genuinely thought the world was ending.
‘I thought someone had dropped a nuclear bomb.’
The atmosphere twisted, space warped, and mana swept down like a storm.
A sudden disaster.
Countless still-inexperienced Hunters vanished without even a trace on the spot.
Screams burst out, people ran, and people prayed, but nothing worked.
Jin-woo and his party had simply been lucky.
‘If we hadn’t gone into the dungeon back then….’
They probably would not have survived.
They had been inside a dungeon.
With only a door between them, the outside had been ground away.
And so—back then, they survived.
‘It really was the width of a sheet of paper.’
At the time, even the concept of a Mana Storm had not been properly known.
Prediction, preparation, information.
It was a disaster they simply had to take head-on with nothing at all.
‘It wasn’t that if you didn’t know, you had to get hit….’
‘If you didn’t know, you died.’
That was how the Tower operated.
No consideration, no explanation, not even a warning.
Survive, and go to the next stage.
Die, and that was the end.
“……It’s a cruel place.”
Jin-woo slowly steadied his breathing and looked at the Barrier Generator again.
This time, he would not leave it to luck.
“This time… I endure.”
His voice was low but firm.
Lumina’s warning sound rang one beat late, as if matching those words.
***
[Mana Storm occurrence: approximately 10 minutes.]
[Error rate: 10%.]
[Mana Storm preparation recommended.]
Lumina’s warning rang out in succession.
Jin-woo already knew.
Even without being told, his body was reacting first.
STING—!
“Ah, shit…!”
A pain as if his entire body were being stabbed.
It was mana static.
A faint electric current burrowed over his skin.
Like needles scraping against his flesh, it kept pricking his entire body.
His hair stood on end, and a metallic taste brushed between his teeth.
This was the omen right before the storm.
Space itself was already creaking.
Ding!
《Mana Storm omen detected》
《Magic Tower Stability: 38%》
《Penalty is applied if Magic Tower Stability falls below 20%.》
The message window appeared.
‘It’s coming.’
Jin-woo gritted his teeth.
An indescribable amount of mana was gathering here from all directions, as if being sucked in.
His ears rang, and his vision shook faintly.
‘Hold.’
His heart pounded.
‘If I just… if I just get through this.’
The Tower was cruel.
But at the same time, it was fair.
If the trial was great, a reward always followed.
‘Equivalent exchange.’
Jin-woo knew that law better than anyone.
‘A Mana Storm is also a trial.’
And—
‘If I get through this, it will definitely return the price.’
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE—!
Beyond the Magic Tower’s outer wall, a thunderous roar rang out as if space itself were tearing apart.
The next moment.
WHOOOOOSH—!!
An invisible wave swept toward the Magic Tower.
The air collapsed as if being ripped apart.
As if a giant hammer had struck the entire building, the whole Magic Tower shook.
《Magic Tower Stability: 36%》
《Continuously decreasing.》
“Damn it—!”
Jin-woo ran to the control panel.
The Barrier Generator—core control unit.
“Lumina! Maximum output!”
[Barrier Generator operation beginning.]
[Energy Concentration.]
[Approaching output limit.]
CRASH—!!
The Mana Storm struck the outer wall directly.
At that impact, the entire Barrier Generator screamed.
Sparks flew from circuits all over, and the mana flow lurched unstably.
《Magic Tower Stability: 29%》
“Hold!!”
Jin-woo gritted his teeth and personally plunged his hand into the mana control device.
[Danger-!]
[Possibility of human body damage sharply increasing.]
“Is now the time to worry about that?!”