“Mew, mew, mew!”
Another day began with Bami’s cry.
“All right, you little rascal. I’m awake.”
I stroked the chin of the creature perched on my chest and casting its kneading technique, then climbed out of bed.
The objective of the fourth-floor Trial I had completed yesterday was ‘Canyon Breakthrough’.
The original third-floor Mission had been to reach the canyon with Bami’s egg, and it seemed the fourth floor was an extension of that.
‘The rocks they dropped from above and the arrows they kept shooting were a little annoying… but it was still easier than the third floor.’
To be precise, should I say it was easier because I had grown stronger?
My newly purchased armor and the Fire Resistance Skill I had added played a major part.
I cut down dozens of bastards blocking my path and charged straight along the route, completing it.
My Clear Evaluation came out at EX Grade without issue, so I extended the Bounty of the Swamp buff and diligently collected ‘Gaze's Favor’ and the ‘Unidentified Black Page’ as well.
After receiving decent equipment items on both the second and third floors, I had secretly held out hope for the fourth floor too, but I came up empty-handed.
‘It’s a shame, but it can’t be helped. Getting equipment on two floors in a row was already something.’
That thought suddenly reminded me of the helmet I had left at auction and forgotten about.
‘Ah, right. The auction.’
According to schedule, the auction should have begun at midnight and would now be well underway.
‘Should I take a look? Let’s see how it’s going.’
I immediately opened the TemDaPam app and checked the auction’s progress.
“If it just goes over seven million, that’ll be a jackpot… No, they say greater expectations bring greater disappointment. It isn’t even a popular item. I just hope it doesn’t fail to sell.”
That was what I thought.
But then….
[Tooth-Studded Scrap-Iron Crown]
[Current Bid: 8,700,000 won]
“Huh…?”
Once I actually opened it, events were unfolding quite differently from what I had expected.
“One, ten, one hundred, one thousand, ten thousand, one hundred thousand… one million!”
Thinking I might have read it wrong, I counted the zeroes again, but there was no mistake.
‘What’s going on?’
Wondering what on earth had happened, I checked the bid history and found a fairly fierce bidding war underway.
‘What would I have done if I’d sold this off for six million?’
It certainly paid to listen to the experts.
Did rice cakes not come to you even while you slept?
‘There’s still some time left… If it keeps rising at this rate, ten… no, it might even reach fifteen million.’
Auctions did not actually work that way, but who cared?
Greater expectations bring greater disappointment? No! Dreams come true.
‘Won’t it reach at least ten million? If I suddenly get ten million won… what should I do with it? Reinvest it in equipment…? No, should I move after all?’
Just last night, before falling asleep, I had stroked Bami where it lay beside my head and wondered whether we should move somewhere else.
‘I’m already used to this place, but for Bami, it still… can’t be good.’
There was no way this mold-reeking dump could be a good environment for a kitten.
What if it developed a lung disease?
Even if it meant stretching my finances a little, moving seemed like the better choice.
‘Even if I stop climbing tomorrow and become a salaried worker, I can somehow cover the upkeep of a small studio apartment. Let’s move somewhere with plenty of sunlight and no mold first.’
Even if I could not afford a very large home, a place like that would at least let me live somewhat like a human being.
And Bami could live like a proper cat.
“Bami. Let’s move. No, we are moving!”
“Mew?”
Bami had been nestled in my arms, munch, munch, munching away at a shadow, but it lifted its head when I called.
Its round purple eyes sparkled.
“Good. Then should we go earn more money for our new nest? Are you ready, Bami?”
“Mew!”
Its resounding reply drew an involuntary smile from me.
At long last, the fifth floor.
I headed toward the first gateway that would advance the Sword Saint’s Growth-Type Skill, ‘The Beginning of Training’, by one stage.
***
The stage for the fifth floor’s Basic Mission was a deep cave.
The main objective was to eliminate theGoblin Shamans in the cave beyond the wasteland and canyon.
‘Ugh, it’s humid. I already feel clammy.’
The moment I entered the cave, damp, cold air greeted me.
Then there was the echo of water going drip, drip in the thick darkness.
It was not exactly refreshing.
‘…I was starting to get tired of the wasteland, but now that I’ve left, I miss it.’
This was the first uncomfortable environment faced by Awakened who had grown accustomed to the open wasteland.
It was, in fact, one of the places where deaths occurred most frequently among the lower floors at or below the tenth.
Supposedly, it was a wailing wall that turned spirited newly Awakened into salaried workers.
‘Even if it’s only a Basic Mission, I’d better stay on guard this time.’
SWISH.
At the cave entrance, where a faint trace of light still remained, I took out a headlamp and put it on in advance.
It was something I had just purchased from the large consumables shop in the first-floor Waiting Room.
― Ah, a headlamp? You must be climbing the fifth floor. Goodness, the fifth floor is troublesome, is it not? It is so very dark. But! With this item at your side, mere darkness can never stand in the way of your climb…….
I had heard an explanation about how it was made using glow moss native to the Tower and fragments from the body of a luminous Moonlight Stone Golem, but I could not remember the details.
What mattered was how to use it. That, I remembered perfectly.
‘If I channel Mana into this….’
Light suddenly burst from the lamp, illuminating my entire field of vision in an instant.
“Oh, this is nice.”
It did not occupy one of my hands like a torch, and it shone precisely wherever I looked. It was proving well worth the seven hundred and fifty thousand won I had invested in it.
With that, I was fully prepared. Relying on the reassuring glow of my seven-hundred-and-fifty-thousand-won light, I headed deeper into the cave.
“…All right, shall we go?”
About a minute passed as I made my way through the darkness.
The only things I could hear were my footsteps and the occasional sound of dripping water.
“Somehow… there’s nothing here?”
Just as that thought occurred to me, I heard something flapping in the darkness ahead.
“Ah, this mouth of mine just had to jinx it.”
The headlamp’s beam chased the sound, revealing a giant bat.
A pair of red eyes flashed as they reflected the light.
‘It’s coming…!’
“SKRREEEK─!”
The sight was so revolting that I cut it down with one stroke.
No, that was what I had intended, but the bastard instantly folded its wings and performed an acrobatic flight maneuver, allowing the blade to graze its body by a hair.
“…Ngh!”
My surprise at the unexpected evasive maneuver lasted only a moment. When the creature spread its wings again, it lost its balance and staggered.
‘It froze!’
The moment I confirmed that a thin layer of ice had formed on one of its wings from Prelude’s effect, I unleashed a clean thrust.
SWISH—! CRUNCH—!
The ink-black blade shot out in a straight line, shattered its ribs, and impaled it.
“SKRREEEEEE!”
That was not enough to kill it. Still skewered on my sword, the creature convulsed and beat its wings wildly.
Its wings were so large that I frowned at the thought of them touching me.
“This is exactly why I aimed for the head.”
With Nocturne unexpectedly reduced to a skewer, I braced it against the ground and stomped the creature’s head.
CRUNCH—!
An unpleasant sensation spread faintly through my shoe.
Only then did the giant bat stop thrashing.
“…I guess slashing is better for bats.”
I flicked the blood from my shoe and sword, then stared into the darkness ahead again.
‘Are bastards like that going to keep jumping out? What a nuisance.’
That was when it happened.
Somewhere deep inside the cave, something glinted as the headlamp’s beam touched it.
Something yellowish….
‘Gold? It’s the GoldenGoblin!’
My body reacted on instinct before my mind did.
I immediately sped up and closed the distance, and soon the Petty ThiefGoblin carrying a bundle came into view.
“SKRREEEEK!”
The moment it spotted me, it went pale with fright and tried to flee down a side passage.
“Where do you think you’re going?!”
In this darkness, even moving at full speed was a burden. If I lost it here, I might lose it forever.
I immediately opened my Inventory, pulled out a dagger, and threw it.
I had only intended to borrow it for a day, but Jin-cheol hyung had more or less forced it on me as a gift.
It had lain dormant in my Inventory since I acquired Nocturne, but it had found its purpose here.
SWISH─!
A concealed weapon thrown with the power of Basic Stats that made me twice as strong as everyone else on each floor.
The dagger flew with a harsh, air-splitting howl before producing a ‘CRUNCH—!’ in the darkness.
‘It hit.’
The shriek of ‘Skrreee’ that soon sounded from the darkness confirmed it.
‘Did I get it?’
Unfortunately, it was only half a success.
The concealed weapon had struck, but the bastard did not seem ready to give up its life yet.
The chase continued through the dark cave.
“Why… are you…! So good at running?!”
It was astonishingly difficult to close the gap between one who wanted to live and one who wanted to kill.
“Argh, just go down already!”
The GoldenGoblin bastard fled for its life even as blood dripped steadily onto the ground.
It tore through the darkness as though it were running around its own bedroom.
It was an unfair chase.
Perhaps it would have been different in the wasteland.
But on the moss-covered floor of this dark cave, I could not go all out no matter how much I tried to accelerate.
‘If a cliff suddenly appears, I’ll fall straight to my death. How am I supposed to go any faster than this?’
That was when I thought I might lose it at this rate.
‘Ah, then the Secret Map Fragment goes out the window too.’
Bami abruptly emerged from the shadow at my feet.
I had a bad feeling.
“Hey, what are you trying to do now…?!”
“MEEEEW─!”
Even as I spoke, my hands were already reaching for Bami.
‘Got it…!’
I thought I had nearly caught it.
But Bami suddenly slipped back between the shadows.
“Hey! That’s cheating!”
Ignoring me, it reappeared the instant my hands swept through empty air and raced ahead on all fours in a rapid patter.
At times like this, it seemed faster than any monstrous beast I had encountered in the Tower so far.
“You little bastard…! What, you can even fly?”
Bami had never shown me that it could fly with those wings, so I had assumed they had not fully matured yet, but it seemed to have flown just now.
No, should I call it gliding rather than flying?
Of course, that was not the immediate problem.
“Argh, I should’ve left you at home, whether you cried or not.”
I hated the idea of Bami staying home alone and crying ‘Meeeeew’, but I hated the thought of bringing it somewhere dangerous only for it to die or get hurt even more than death itself.
I had never experienced anything like familial love, so I did not really understand it. Still, wasn’t Bami a life I was responsible for?
“Stop right there!”
The GoldenGoblin was pushed to the back of my mind.
Tense and alert, I chased after Bami.
‘You little rascal. This time, I’m really going to teach you a lesson.’
Fortunately, the chase with Bami did not last long.
“…Hmm?”
Bami, which had gotten far ahead of me, suddenly stopped dead.
It had even cornered its prey and was threatening it.
“HSSSS!”
The hiss I had only ever heard about.
I had not known Bami could make an expression like that.
“S-Skree?”
TheGoblin standing before it was utterly terrified, floundering in indecision.
‘What’s so frightening about this tiny, adorable bastard?’
In any case, it was within range.
I could not waste the opportunity Bami had created.
“You bastard!”
The ink-black blade shot straight through the darkness that concealed it.
CRUNCH—!
The blade entered through theGoblin’s back and jutted out from the left side of its chest.
It died instantly.
A welcome System message followed.
[Special Effect ‘Sly Swipe’ activates.]
[Acquired Special Item ‘Secret Map Fragment’ from Special Entity ‘Petty ThiefGoblin’.]
“Phew….”
In the end, Bami’s intervention had been a great help.
Even if receiving that help did not sit entirely well with me.
“Bami…!”
This time, I truly intended to give it one sharp BONK.
But then….
“Mew?”
Two wide eyes stared up at me, their irises glowing like amethysts.
Ah, I simply could not resist.
Just how powerful a weapon was cuteness?
“Haah… Bami. It’s good that you want to help me, but you could seriously put yourself in danger. You can’t keep doing this.”
As if protesting my words, Bami vanished into the shadow at my feet and reappeared with a ‘POP!’ from the shadow of theGoblin’s corpse.
“Mew!”
I did not know what it was saying, but the display made it seem as though it were shouting, ‘No! I’m safe!’
“Yes, I know you can do things like that. I know, but I’m telling you it’s dangerous here even with that ability?”
“Mew!”
Oh, really? This time, Bami even extended its claws to show me.
As though it were saying, ‘I can fight too!’
“I don’t expect anything like that from you, so please just stay safe. Okay?”
“Mew!”
“That answer… Do you really think I’ll fall for it again?”
Ignoring my words, Bami happily rubbed its head against my leg.
“Again, again, again! Don’t try to smooth this over by acting cute!”
“Mew, mew!”
Damn it. I fell for it again.
“Fine, I lose. I lose. I need to hurry up and move so I can leave you at the new place when I come to the Tower.”
I grumbled, but there was nothing I could do about the smile spreading across my lips.
“If you weren’t cute, you would’ve been hit about three times already. You know that? Of course you don’t. What would you know?”
“Mew?”
“…Maybe I should buy you a treat when we get out today. I wonder what you’ll eat besides shadows?”
I stroked the head of the creature purring happily when a faint sound reached me from beyond the darkness.
‘An incantation…? No, is that singing?’
Perhaps it was both.
It was time to return to reality.
“All right, back inside. It’s time for your master to work.”
After sending Bami back into my shadow, I readjusted my grip on Nocturne.
Nocturne’s blade had begun to emit heat little by little.
In contrast, my briefly elated heart turned cold.
The hunt began again.