Battle Tower (1)
As soon as I entered the Rune Dungeon, I reorganized the team composition.
‘Hert, Caligo, Temina, and Iron.’
This was the best team I could build right now.
Then I should introduce the new team members, right?
I summoned Hert and Caligo.
As soon as the two were summoned, they greeted me with bright expressions.
“Master! You are overflowing with dignity today as well.”
“Oho, Honored Sage! It is an honor to be called! What matter have you summoned me for today?”
“Greet them. They are new comrades who will climb the tower with us.”
At the words new comrades, the two of them looked displeased.
In truth, the summons of Pandemonium, including Hert and Caligo, hated one another deeply and bickered constantly, but as comrades, they had quite a strong trust in one another.
Should I say they acknowledged one another’s abilities?
However, their attitude toward summons who did not belong to Pandemonium was slightly different.
Whenever I recruited someone because I thought they seemed useful, they would discipline the newcomer among themselves.
They were so harsh that there had been summons crying every time I logged in.
‘Still, well, there are only two of them right now, so it should be less severe.’
Praying that Temina and Iron’s future would not be too dark, I summoned them.
“Come out. Temina. Iron.”
Temina appeared in a fluttering bikini swimsuit, holding a wide-brimmed hat and a red parasol with splendid patterns.
Iron, the Cowardly Golem, trembled despite his large body, his eyes looking as though he might burst into tears at any moment.
“Adventurer! Thank you for calling me, Temina!”
“I am not happy, and I am sc-scared!”
Crack—
Grind—
No sooner had the two appeared than the two senior members approached with terrifying sounds.
Hert approached Temina and whispered quietly.
“Lowly thing. It would be best not to act coquettish toward Master in front of me. How about covering yourself up a little too?”
“Pardon...?”
“Or lower your eyes and keep your mouth shut. Judging by the look of you, it seems you know who I am. You had better behave properly before I tear apart the few scraps of cloth you are wearing.”
“Ah. Yes...”
Caligo approached Golem Iron.
“You are not happy and you are scared? Did you just say our Honored Sage is scary?”
“Y-Yes?!”
“Do you want me to show you what is truly scary?!”
Caligo opened the lid of one of the flasks at his waist and dropped it onto the floor.
Hisssss.
A terrible chemical smell rose along with cloudy smoke as the floor melted.
“Hiiiiik!”
“If you do not want to bathe in this solution, you had better refrain from such irreverent remarks. Otherwise, I feel as though I will use you as a new test subject.”
“Yeeees!! I-I will be careful!”
It seemed the hierarchy had roughly been settled.
Then I should leave leveling these two to them now.
“Hert. Caligo. I entrust this to you. Raise these two to a certain level of strength.”
“If it is Master’s will, I shall carry it out.”
“They do not seem very reliable, but if it is Honored Sage’s command, I must do it!”
***
A day passed.
At last, I entered the Battle Tower.
《Welcome to the Battle Tower.》
《In the Battle Tower, you can decide whether to proceed on each floor.》
《Every 5 floors, you can obtain great rewards through battle against a special opponent.》
《If a summon takes damage and is reverse-summoned during the clear, it can be supplemented with another summon.》
《If there are no summons that can be supplemented, summoner protection will be removed.》
⁝
As soon as I entered the tower, it listed off things I already knew.
Only at the end did it ask something very important.
《All records are saved in the Battle Tower. When saving records, would you like to make the adventurer’s information public?》
As if I would.
《NO》
《All information except the adventurer’s records and grade scores will be kept private.》
I had set it to private, so now it was time to call out my team members.
This was the team I had currently formed.
【Team 1】
Witch of the Apocalypse Hertia Lv. 18
Death Liberator Caligo Lv. 18
Temina, Shade of Flame Lv. 11
Iron, the Cowardly Golem Lv. 10
Through yesterday’s dungeon grinding, I had roughly matched their levels.
However, Iron’s level was especially low... There was no special reason. He was simply too cowardly.
Who would have thought he would run away saying it was over before even receiving the level experience?
Even though I had placed him in the very back when running the dungeon laps, he had turned out like this. In the Battle Tower, he had to stand in the front.
I was somewhat worried about whether this coward would be able to play his role properly, but...
‘Well, he seems more afraid of Caligo than the enemy, so I suppose it is fine.’
If Caligo maintained discipline properly, there should be no major problem.
“Assemble.”
I summoned everyone except Hertia.
“Iron.”
“Yes?! D-Did you call me?”
“From now on, you will protect our team from the front.”
“Yeeees?! M-Me?”
“Of course. Who else but you, a knight, should take the lead?”
“Ah... b-but.”
At that moment, a red-haired man whose face twisted viciously stepped forward.
Clink.
“H-Hiiiik!”
Nice, Caligo.
When Caligo approached Iron and lightly shook the flask at his waist, Iron moved to the frontline on his own without saying another word.
Now, only the final step remained...
《Hertia sends a message to the adventurer.》
-I have completed the command. Hertia will now return.
‘Good work, Hertia.’
Before entering the tower, I had set up a small trick.
Using ‘Star That Guides the Shepherd’, I dressed Hertia, whose build was similar to mine, in my coat and deliberately left a card transaction record at a convenience store near the tower.
After that, she threw away the clothes in a subway restroom before I reverse-summoned her.
If they persistently tracked me, they could catch my tail, but with this, I had prepared an immediate alibi. Then now—
“Let us go.”
“Yes, Honored Sage!”
“H-Hiiiik...”
《Entering the 1st floor of the Battle Tower, ‘Crumbling Forest’.》
***
《You have entered the 1st floor of the Battle Tower, ‘Crumbling Forest’.》
《Remember! If all summons are reverse-summoned, the clear will be deemed a failure, and you will die.》
Before Oh Hyunwoo had even finished reading the message, he issued an order to Hertia.
“Hert! To the left!”
The goblins gathered in the place Oh Hyunwoo indicated were helpless before Hertia’s attack.
《You have cleared the 1st floor of the Battle Tower, ‘Crumbling Forest’.》
《An unbelievable record!》
《Clear Time: 00 minutes 02 seconds》
He did not even pay attention to the record that appeared.
Only the record his past self had set remained inside his head.
‘Back then, it took me 15 minutes to clear up to the 10th floor. This time, I will cut it down to under 10 minutes.’
Excitement he had not felt in a very long time.
His heart pounded, his blood circulated, and his veins grew taut.
On top of that, unlike in the game, there was even the tension that his real life was at stake.
Yes, to be honest.
Oh Hyunwoo was enjoying this very moment.
Even pretending to be Lucifer, which had only felt awkward at first, now felt as natural as if he had acted this way from the beginning.
He had not known he would adapt this well.
It seemed the beginning had definitely been the moment he summoned Hertia.
When his life was threatened, and he resolved it with quick wit, what emotion had Oh Hyunwoo felt?
‘This is fun.’
The tension of life and death, and an environment where he could fully display his talent without restraint.
All of it was simply enjoyable.
He was certain.
This tower was currently a stage made for Oh Hyunwoo, for Lucifer.
《You have entered the 2nd floor of the Battle Tower, ‘Extraordinary Forest’.》
As soon as he entered the 2nd floor and saw the positions of the structures rising throughout the forest, his past memories returned intact.
Even the enemies’ positions and numbers.
He even gained the confidence that he would absolutely not die.
This was not arrogance.
It was confidence born from believing in the knowledge that ‘Oh Hyunwoo’ had built up.
“Hert! Run 10 meters forward, then to the right. There are six of them there, so do not let even one escape.”
“As expected of Master!”
“Khat! Honored Sage. Show me a miracle! More, more!”
Oh Hyunwoo’s climb through the Battle Tower was truly unstoppable.
It was an achievement that could not have been accomplished solely through the power of villains.
Talent that had met the right environment finally began to spread its wings wide.
《You have cleared the 2nd floor of the Battle Tower, ‘Extraordinary Forest’.》
《You have cleared the 3rd floor of the Battle Tower, ‘Sharp Forest’.》
⁝
The 5th floor, the first boss stage.
The Goblin Chief and 10 goblins before him were all annihilated by Hertia’s Vortex of Death.
《You have cleared the 5th floor of the Battle Tower, ‘Dusky Forest’.》
《An unbelievable record!》
《Clear Time: 00 minutes 33 seconds》
‘Good. 33 seconds. I reduced it by 30 seconds compared to before!’
Oh Hyunwoo smiled fully and ran toward the next floor.
“Next are three orc archers 30 meters ahead, and one orc spearman 20 meters to the right! Everyone, take note!”
“Yes!”
***
Lee Jeongyul was depressed every morning because of the super rookie who had disappeared.
Jeon Myeongil pressured her by asking when the additional report would be submitted, and Park Taegyun, the team member beside her, was still doing things halfheartedly.
However, Lee Jeongyul was certain.
This was definitely not an error.
There was a very high probability that the person was Korean.
She had grounds.
The abnormal phenomenon that had recently occurred in the Labyrinth.
Just when they were organizing an emergency clear party after the notice for the minor update, news came to the tower that the Labyrinth had been cleared.
The strange thing was that no one had stepped forward claiming to have cleared the Labyrinth.
‘If it had been foreign power, they would have demanded compensation before clearing it, and if it had been an existing domestic adventurer, there would be no reason for them to hide themselves.’
In her opinion, the most likely answer was this.
The ‘rookie’ had cleared the Labyrinth.
At this point, the hypothesis that the rookie was a third-generation conglomerate heir lost its strength.
Instead, one piece of information had become certain.
‘His skill is certain. His personality is extremely cautious.’
For some reason, this rookie was extremely avoiding leaving behind his records.
There were several possible reasons she could guess.
However, the most likely was...
‘A dangerous designated summon. If the summon is that powerful, he must have judged that the government would try to restrain him.’
In other words, it meant he had neither money nor backing.
However, he possessed overwhelming skill and was clever enough to judge the situation.
In that case, the target could be narrowed down a little more.
‘He must be a ranker. A former one.’
Lee Jeongyul’s heart began pounding again.
If there was one disappointment, it was that she could not tell the rookie there was a misunderstanding in his judgment.
‘The situation has changed. Until now, we had no choice but to do whatever foreign countries asked of us, but we are struggling to become self-reliant too!’
Then where was that super rookie now, and what was he doing?
Because of that curiosity, every day was a war inside her head.
She spent nights setting up various assumptions and discarding them, so whenever she opened her eyes, she was tired.
‘Ha, damn it. What am I supposed to write in today’s report...?’
She had just risen from her seat and was stretching to loosen her neck and shoulder muscles.
At that moment, mysterious numbers appeared on her monitor like comets before her eyes.
《An unidentified adventurer has cleared the 1st floor of the Battle Tower in 00 minutes 04 seconds.》
《An unidentified adventurer has cleared the 2nd floor of the Battle Tower in 00 minutes 12 seconds.》
⁝
《An unidentified adventurer has cleared the 5th floor of the Battle Tower in 00 minutes 33 seconds.》
Lee Jeongyul rubbed her eyes.
The numbers on the monitor were far too unrealistic.
‘The 1st floor clear record is... 4 seconds!? Wait, I am sure the previous best record was... 48... seconds...’
On top of that, the world record for the 5th floor was 6 minutes and 20 seconds.
However, according to the system, the record of the ‘unidentified adventurer’ was 33 seconds.
Thump.
“Taegyun!”
“Uhup, yep, yes. Team Leader.”
“Battle Tower entry records! Pull up the list of everyone who entered from now to 15 minutes ago!”
“Pardon? All of a sudden?”
“Just pull them all up! Hurry!”
“Yes, yes! Understood!”
Lee Jeongyul was certain.
The person climbing the Battle Tower right now was the super rookie she had seen in the tutorial.
‘Yes. There is no way this is a coincidence! Just wait a little. The moment I find you, I will secure every bit of support available and raise you properly!’
***
《You have cleared the 10th floor of the Battle Tower, ‘Orc Encampment’.》
《An unbelievable record!》
《Clear Time: 00 minutes 58 seconds》
‘Done!’
There had been no blockage up to the 10th floor.
It was only natural, since I knew every strategy inside out.
Depending on the shape of the map, even the monster placements were clearly visible to me.
“Kha! This thrill! The shivers are not merely flowing through me. Even my head is tingling, Honored Sage!”
Caligo was making this fuss.
Yes. Since I was briefing every enemy position, he was in the middle of shedding tears of emotion.
“Caligo. Maintain your dignity.”
“Hertia, did you not feel it even while fighting? How incredible Honored Sage is!”
“There is no way I did not. If any such vermin existed, they would already be dead by my hands.”
“Yes! We are finally communicating after so long! I cannot control my excitement right now! Inspiration, inspiration is rising! If only I had test subjects, there would be so many things I could try right away!”
...Seeing him go on about test subjects, I should probably hand something over to him soon.
If I did not satisfy that desire as well, it might have a negative effect later.
As expected of powerful summons, the effort needed to manage them was no joke.
Even though they took that much effort, when I looked at the rewards neatly piled up in my inventory, I felt as though I could indulge them a hundred times over.
‘How much is all this worth?!’
Perhaps because of the incredible records, rewards had piled up from the 1st floor onward.
【Accumulated Reward List】
Common Summon Ticket x400
Advanced Summon Ticket x200
Rare Summon Ticket x100
Hero Summon Ticket x50
Legendary Summon Ticket x1
Common Artifact Summon Ticket x30
Advanced Artifact Summon Ticket x10
Rare Artifact Summon Ticket x2
Just looking at this, the money I had earned now was already in the hundreds of millions.
And I had only climbed to the 10th floor.
But this was not all.
I had also obtained various equipment crafting materials.
Goblin Shaman’s Staff
Goblin Chief’s Necklace
Orc’s Broken Tusk
Orc’s Dirty Blood
⁝
Even after all this, there were still rewards left.
This was the highlight.
The items I obtained from the 5th and 10th floors.
Obtaining ‘Hero Skill Unlock Scrolls’ could be considered a very large gain.
I could give them to Temina and Iron, who were Hero grade, and unlock their skills right away, but I did not judge it necessary at the moment.
Besides, these kinds of resources had to be used sparingly. Nothing good would come from using everything just because I had it.
If I were to use them, using one might be worth trying, but there was no need to hurry.
“Whew...”
I had climbed to the 10th floor, but I had no intention whatsoever of feeling satisfied already.
Today’s goal was the 15th floor. I would climb there in one go!
The monsters appearing from the 11th to the 15th floors were werewolves.
They were fellows with high speed who wrapped themselves in evasion buffs.
They were also the first wall that adventurers who had just begun climbing the tower encountered.
After all, it was difficult for beginners to prepare items with high speed.
Well, for me, it was not a problem because I had Hertia.
In addition, the current party had been formed precisely to deal with werewolves.
“Gather. I will explain the plan.”
“Yes, Master.”
“The next opponents are werewolves. We will quickly break through to the 14th floor, then handle the leader guarding the 15th floor. However, on the 15th floor, we will take a little time.”
“When you say a little time?”
“Until their manes are dyed red.”
When that pure white moon changed into a red moon.
That was when I intended to clear the 15th floor boss.
“There is no time to delay. Move at once.”
“Yes!”