Chapter 28

Chapter 28. Tower - Escort (1)

“Let’s challenge the 11th floor!”

At Lee Soo-young’s choice, I asked back,

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I’ve spent about a week on the 10th floor, so now I should try challenging the floor above. And after fighting with you, oppa, your skills feel reliable too!”

After saying that, Lee Soo-young suddenly realized something and asked,

“Ah, you said you came to the 10th floor yesterday, right? Then should we spend a little more time in the city?”

“No. We can look around the city more after we go to the 11th floor and come back. Let’s eat, prepare our equipment, and go straight up.”

Lee Soo-young originally carried a shield, but she said she had thrown it away and fled when the Goblins chased her.

Then she needed to buy a shield and more arrows.

“Okay! There’s a restaurant nearby that’s good. It’s partnered with the Association, so we can get a discount with merit points too.”

I ate where Lee Soo-young guided me, then went to a weapon and armor shop.

Lee Soo-young bought a shield and three quivers containing twenty arrows each.

She said the arrows were made with bamboo shafts, so they were sturdy and light, and each quiver weighed only 250 grams.

She fastened one quiver to her waist and placed the other two in Inventory.

Since the shield was for close combat, she carried it on her back like a turtle.

“By the way, your archery is pretty good. Did you learn it professionally?”

Unlike me, her accuracy was quite high.

At my question, Lee Soo-young answered as if it was nothing special.

“I did archery until middle school. In elementary school, I often won bronze medals in provincial competitions, but from middle school onward, there were archery monsters all over the country. So now I’ve felt the limit of my talent and quit.”

In truth, Lee Soo-young said her dream had not been to become an archer, but a Hunter who closed Gates.

When she was young, she had once evacuated from monsters during an Outbreak, and after a Hunter saved her back then, the Hunter looked so cool that she made it her future dream.

So she wanted to attend a martial arts school that taught the aura usage method established by a Tower Returnee, but her parents opposed it because the Hunter job was too dangerous. Instead, she learned taekwondo, kendo, and archery.

The taekwondo studio and kendo studio Lee Soo-young attended were not professional places, but felt more like cram schools for elementary school students, so she quit them quickly.

However, the archery place seriously trained athletes, so it seemed she learned there until middle school.

After entering high school, she had changed her mind and decided to go to college first as her parents wanted, but perhaps by a twist of fate, she received Tower’s Invitation and came here.

“Ji-woo oppa, what are you going to buy?”

At Lee Soo-young’s question, I thought for a moment.

“Not sure. For now, there’s nothing I want to buy immediately.”

The one-handed sword I was currently using was a little short, but it was still usable.

If my strength grew more or my internal energy increased, I could use a sword with a longer blade, but it was not time to change weapons yet.

Most importantly, the swords here did not look much better than the ones sold at the Tower Shop.

No, to be precise, the sword I bought from the Tower Shop was thin and sturdy, like something stamped out of a factory, while the swords at the 10th-floor city’s weapon shop had thick, heavy blades, as if they had been hammered directly in a forge.

They were far better than the machete a Hobgoblin used, but even a one-handed sword seemed to easily weigh more than one kilogram.

One might think that something made by an artisan would be better, but unless it was something exceptional, human hand skills fell short of factory technology.

Between a human hammering something and a machine evenly pressing a broad surface with consistent pressure, which one would be more precise was obvious without even looking.

Of course, because they were thicker, they were sturdier, and at around 2,000 Credits each, they cost only 20 percent of the Tower Shop’s one-handed sword price, so buying one of these might be better, but my sword was not broken either.

Because of that, I looked at armor rather than weapons.

The money I had was roughly 4,500 Credits, about 450,000 won.

That amount would be gone after buying only the upper half of an ordinary leather armor set.

Of course, I could buy Credits with Shop Points, but it felt a little wasteful.

As a person of Galactic Murim, spending money on equipment that made the body heavier was unthinkable.

“I think this is all I need.”

Among the armor, I chose a bracer that covered the wrist and back of the hand.

It was not glove-shaped enough to call it a gauntlet, and it was closer to a bracer, an arm guard.

“I can use this instead of a shield.”

“Will that be all right? The area is too small to use as a shield.”

“It’s fine. A shield would interfere with my movement, so this is better.”

Even this made the wrist area feel unnatural, so I planned to wear it only on my left arm, the one that did not hold a sword.

It was a guard, so wearing one for the right arm on my left arm would not be a major problem. I decided to think of it as having bought two left-arm pieces.

The bracers cost 2,600 Credits per pair, and I used Association merit points to get a 20 percent discount and bought them for 2,340 Credits.

“If you’re short on Credits, I can lend you some.”

Since Lee Soo-young had arrived a week earlier than me, it seemed she had earned quite a few Shop Points through hunting Horned Rabbits and Blade Fighting Roosters.

“No. I earned Shop Points earlier too, so would I really be short on Credits? I’ve already prepared protective gear.”

Even if I could not buy the famous Heavenly Silk Treasure Robe because it was too expensive, I could save up my allowance and buy the latest aramid (Aramid: synthetic fiber) Heavenly Silk-like combat uniform.

On the day I decided to climb the Tower, I bought one sized for my main body, so all I had to do was wear it.

After the amusement park kidnapping incident, it had become impossible to buy things secretly from Si-woo, but when I said I would wear it later, Si-woo said she understood for now while looking at me suspiciously.

She did not say anything, but my internet was in a little danger.

At my words that I had prepared protective gear, Lee Soo-young looked puzzled.

“Then why didn’t you wear it outside the city?”

At Lee Soo-young’s question, I subtly looked away.

“...It’s a little very uncomfortable.”

There was a reason it was cheap.

Because it was a combat uniform, it was light and the joints moved well, but when worn properly, it put quite a lot of pressure across the whole body.

They said a real Heavenly Silk Treasure Robe felt as if one were wearing it and not wearing it at the same time, but even if I wanted to buy one, a single set easily cost more than three years of living expenses, so there was nothing I could do.

At my answer, Lee Soo-young looked at me with narrowed eyes and said,

“Wear it.”

“...Okay.”

---

After parting for a moment at the weapon and armor shop, thirty minutes passed.

After changing clothes, we gathered in the center of the city, where the crystal for going up to the 11th floor was located.

Lee Soo-young seemed to have found the sweat she had shed unpleasant, because she had even showered before coming.

“Oh! Is this the armor? It looks much sleeker than I expected.”

My Heavenly Silk-like combat uniform looked somewhat similar to a police tactical unit uniform.

I had never worn a tactical unit uniform, so I did not know, but this Heavenly Silk-like combat uniform could block not only swords coated in sword qi, but also a few 20-caliber anti-tank machine-gun bullets.

To be precise, that was its performance when it could be reinforced with internal energy, which was a condition of Second-Rate. To me, who was only Third-Rate, it was merely good stab-resistant clothing and bulletproof clothing.

Whether against blades or bullets, the combat uniform’s structure first blocked attacks by making the “Heavenly Silk-like polymer fibers” structurally take on non-Newtonian fluid properties between the fibers, then made the fibers tangle together to offset the force a second time and prevent further penetration.

“It’s tighter than I thought, so it’s uncomfortable.”

They said if it was a little loose, the defensive power would fall, so I had no choice even if it was uncomfortable.

However, perhaps because it was not real Heavenly Silk, any physical force it failed to fully offset had to be endured by my body.

Still, it was much better than armor that was uncomfortable to move in.

It only constricted my body, and there was no feeling that it interfered with my movement.

If it was this tight, it would be natural for moving somewhere to feel awkward, but it was fascinating.

Is this future technology?

“Even if it’s uncomfortable, it’s better to be safe. Did you buy this from the Tower Shop? It must be expensive, right?”

“Well, yes.”

There were so many products in the Tower Shop list that looking through them one by one was a chore.

The fortunate thing was that it had a search function.

“Let’s go up right away.”

“Okay.”

Lee Soo-young and I placed our hands on the crystal and went up to the 11th floor.

---

The quest that appeared on the crystal of the 11th floor was simple.

[Keep Milio safe while he goes to the forest.]

When we arrived on the 11th floor, a boy who looked about fifteen was praying in front of the crystal.

The praying boy was startled when we suddenly appeared.

“A-Are you perhaps the Climbers sent by the Tower?”

At the boy’s question, Lee Soo-young nodded.

“We are Climbers. Is your name Milio?”

At Lee Soo-young’s question, the boy, Milio, was startled.

“That’s right! The Tower really granted my wish!”

At Milio’s words, I asked,

“Wish? What did you wish to the Tower?”

At my question, Milio’s eyes darted around.

“Did you not come to grant my wish?”

“So what wish? All we know is that we’re supposed to protect you while you go to the forest.”

At my answer, Milio’s expression brightened again.

“Then you really did come to grant my wish! My wish was to go to that forest safely!”

Milio pointed beyond the wooden fence. Naturally, I could not see any forest.

“Explain in detail.”

“So....”

Perhaps slightly nervous, Milio explained in a somewhat rambling manner.

To summarize his explanation, his mother had fallen ill, and his father had gone to a city two months away by round trip to obtain medicine that could treat her illness.

In the meantime, his mother’s illness had worsened, and she was hovering between life and death with a high fever. To bring down the fever, he needed an antipyretic herb that grew in the forest.

The forest was the territory of a wolf pack led by a monster wolf, so it was a place even the village’s adult men did not enter alone.

The wooden fence surrounding the village had also been set up in case the wolves of the forest came to the village.

“Do you know where that herb is?”

“Yes. Before Father went to the city, I went into the forest with him several times and dug up herbs!”

There were currently few proper adults in the village.

They had all gone to the city with Milio’s father to obtain supplies.

The village’s main source of income seemed to be herbs that grew naturally at the entrance and middle of the forest, and it seemed they periodically visited the city to sell the herbs and buy daily necessities.

Because the city was quite far away, the adults seemed to travel together for safety, except for the people left behind to guard the village.

That seemed to be why Milio had made a wish to the Tower, because there was no adult who could enter the dangerous forest with him to obtain herbs.

“You wished to the Tower, and we came?”

“Yes. Father said that if you sincerely wish to the Tower, it will send Climbers who can fulfill that wish. I thought it was just a legend, but the two of you really came!”

Milio was delighted that he could obtain the herbs.

“But don’t villages usually leave behind medicinal herbs for the villagers to use?”

“Well... the medicine my mother needs is expensive, so we left behind only the minimum amount of herbs, and the ones we kept just in case have already all been used.”

“Then there’s nothing we can do. Let’s go quickly and come back.”

Since it was an escort mission, if we were as careful as possible, unless we were extraordinarily unlucky, we would not run into the monster wolf.

...Probably.