Chapter 31

Chapter 31. Tower - Mage Tower Branch

“For now, let’s go to the 10th floor, rest a little, and go to the 12th floor tomorrow.”

She seemed somewhat tired.

Well, she had been chased by a group of Goblins in the forest outside the city just this morning.

The battle on the 11th floor had not lasted that long, but she had run hard across the forest, so it was understandable that she was exhausted.

As for me, if I did some breathing circulation, this much would recover quickly, but I also needed to wash my blood-soaked clothes.

“Sure. Then let’s go to the 10th floor.”

Lee Soo-young and I placed our hands on the crystal and returned to the 10th floor.

---

After returning to the 10th floor, Lee Soo-young parted ways with Han Ji-woo and sat comfortably on the sofa in the Association-partnered inn room where she was staying.

She wanted to lie down on the bed, but she felt resistant to lying on it without washing first.

“Ugh, I’m tired. Aah~ I need to wash.”

Lee Soo-young took off her clothes, entered the shower room attached to the room, and wet her body with warm water.

Cheap inn rooms either did not have shower rooms and bathrooms, or even if they did, the two were combined, but expensive inns had fairly large rooms, and the bathroom and shower room were separated.

Of course, since the facilities were good, the price was rather expensive at 1,200 Credits a day, about 120,000 won, but for Climbers, that amount could be covered by catching just one or two Horned Rabbits wandering outside the city.

As Lee Soo-young relieved her fatigue with warm water, she grinned.

“Ah, I’m glad I found a good party member.”

At first, she had felt bleak about how she was supposed to climb the Tower with only weak slimes, but after meeting a reliable party member named Han Ji-woo, she felt relieved.

He had saved her when she was in danger without any ulterior motive, and his combat strength was decent.

Most of all, she liked the wit he had shown by sending her and Milio, the escort target, across the suspension bridge first to secure their safety, then cutting the bridge and crossing the ravine himself.

That was why, even after seeing an ability stone for the first time since entering the Tower, she had not coveted it and had yielded it to Han Ji-woo.

She did not want to lose such a precious connection, someone who would party with her despite the fact that she only handled weak slimes, by getting greedy for no reason.

However, even with that precious ability stone in front of him, Han Ji-woo did not swallow it whole, instead saying they should divide it according to contribution, and asked for her opinion on what they should do from now on.

When she recalled the cases of parties collapsing because of greed, which she had heard from her mother, a WPTO employee who mediated between Hunters, meeting someone fair and unwilling to commit injustice was harder than meeting someone skilled.

In that respect, Lee Soo-young thought she was incredibly lucky.

“Good. Now I just need to do well.”

Unlike yesterday, she felt like she would be able to sleep soundly tonight.

---

After returning to the 10th floor, I immediately got an inn room.

Lee Soo-young seemed to have booked an inn for a longer stay of several days in advance, but it was a ridiculously expensive inn.

1,200 Credits? What is this, a hotel room?

No, these days, was a hotel around 180,000 won a night?

In any case, no matter how good the earnings were, I could not understand burning that much money just to sleep for a day when I wasn’t even traveling.

So I found a 600-Credit inn a short distance away from the inn where Lee Soo-young was staying.

Compared to the room Lee Soo-young was staying in, it was probably smaller, and the shower room and bathroom were not separate, but it was a room comfortable enough to stay in.

After getting a room, I used the reincarnation clone’s body to obtain special detergent good for removing blood and a washbasin, then soaked the combat uniform in cold water.

Fortunately, perhaps because the outside of the combat uniform was coated, the blood came out easily.

There were slight bloodstains on the uncoated joint areas, but since it was black, they did not stand out much.

After washing and drying the combat uniform and doing breathing circulation, my stamina recovered quickly.

“Martial arts really are good.”

There was still quite a bit of time before the sun set.

It was an awkward time to go outside the city and hunt, but not a bad time to visit the Mage Tower branch that the old librarian had recommended.

Since it happened to be right near the inn I had chosen, I immediately got dressed and headed for the Mage Tower branch.

---

The Mage Tower branch was quiet.

The magic goods shop right across from it had around twenty customers despite it being fairly late, but there was no one at the Mage Tower branch.

Of course, it was not easy to tell that this place was the Mage Tower branch.

There was only a small sign with a staff drawn on it hanging outside.

All that existed inside was an empty space and a middle-aged man dozing at something like a front desk.

There were no books, potions, or even magic staffs.

The magic goods shop did not seem to sell magic tools in particular either, but mainly catalysts and materials used in magic.

Just as there were people who had martial arts as an ability, there must also be people who received magic as an ability.

When I approached the dozing middle-aged man, he sensed my presence, wiped his drool, and looked at me with sleepy eyes.

“The shop for magic-related goods is right in front. This place is just a supplies warehouse.”

“Isn’t this the Mage Tower branch?”

At my question, the middle-aged man glared at me as if surprised and said,

“No.”

“Really? Hmm, I was told it was here.”

“Who told you this was the Mage Tower branch?”

“I heard it from the old librarian at the library.”

At my answer, the middle-aged man muttered, “Old librarian...?” Then, as if he remembered something, he jumped to his feet in shock.

CRASH!

The chair he knocked over while standing made a violent sound, but the man paid it no attention at all.

“You’d better not be lying! If this is a lie, you should be prepared!”

“I’m not lying, but who is he for you to react like that?”

At my question, the middle-aged man said with a pale face,

“If he did not tell you, then I cannot tell you.”

His extreme reaction made me wonder, but the middle-aged man did not care about my reaction at all.

“Tell me how you met him, and why he told you to go to the Mage Tower.”

I roughly explained how I had happened to meet him, without mentioning the questions and answers we exchanged or the fact that I had received an ability stone.

After hearing my story, the middle-aged man glared fiercely at me with eyes full of jealousy.

“...You say he truly said that you had talent, talent in magic?”

“I think it was just words. He said it would take me a thousand years to achieve great attainment in magic, so what talent could I possibly have....”

Under the middle-aged man’s fierce gaze full of jealousy, I could not even finish speaking properly.

Just in case, I said,

“I’m a Climber. You know that if a native resident and a Climber commit crimes against each other on the common floor, the Tower’s enforcers will come and say, ‘You there,’ right?”

“I know. If not for that, I would not have been able to do anything about these emotions.”

Fuuuck, his expression is fucking scary.

“About that old man.”

“Do not dare call him that!”

“Uh... yes. Who is he for you to react like this?”

At my question, the man dry-washed his face and said,

“As I said, if he did not tell you, there is no reason for me to say it. No, it is something I must not say.”

The way he reverently prayed was absurd.

After taking a deep breath, the middle-aged man asked me,

“May I see the Magic Bullet he taught you?”

At that request, I obediently created and fired a Magic Bullet.

The middle-aged man, who watched carefully, seemed to see something in my Magic Bullet and burst into tears in despair.

“Ah, with my lowly talent, it is difficult for me to grasp the great implications contained within. Heavens! Why did you give me such wretched talent?!”

“What meaning is there in Magic Bullet?”

At my question, the middle-aged man looked at me with an expression of disbelief, his gaze filled with intense jealousy and some unknowable reverence.

“Cherish that Magic Bullet. As an ordinary person, I can barely interpret only a portion of the surface, but the Magic Bullet you have learned is like a great grimoire containing vast knowledge.”

Is he insane? A Magic Bullet is a Magic Bullet. What do you mean, a grimoire?

I looked at him as if I was sincerely looking at a madman, but the middle-aged man ignored it, sat properly on the floor, and began meditating.

After sitting still for around twenty minutes, he said with his eyes closed,

“They say, ‘If I hear the Dao in the morning, I may die in the evening,’ so I would have no regrets even if I died now. Though I was not born with great talent like yours, I happened to be born before you and walked the path of magic first, so I should be able to give you firefly-like teaching. I am grateful that I can repay even a little of the great grace I received.”

After saying that, the middle-aged man opened a hidden door in the floor and took out several books, then handed them to me.

“These are a magic primer and spellbooks suited to the lower-floor level. I will show you the basics, so with your talent, you should be able to learn sufficiently through self-study.”

After handing me the spellbooks, the middle-aged man raised mana and showed me mana circulation and several kinds of magic.

Magic that created fire.

Magic that created water in the air.

Magic that made wind blow.

Magic that made the ground rise.

Magic that made sparks fly.

Magic that made light flash.

Magic that wrapped the surroundings in darkness.

Seeing those spells, the movement of mana was definitely far simpler than the Magic Bullet the old librarian had shown me.

“Uh... is it like this?”

When I copied the middle-aged man’s mana movement, a small candle flame appeared at my fingertip.

Is this more basic magic than Magic Bullet?

The old librarian should have taught me something easy like this instead of teaching me Magic Bullet.

When I also followed the other spells fairly well, angered jealousy once again flickered in the middle-aged man’s eyes.

“Grrrk...! Congratulations on entering 1st Class.”

Come on. Compared to the magic you showed me, mine is just a speck, so why are you looking at me like that?

The magic the middle-aged man showed me was powerful, but my magic was only good enough to use as a lighter.

Of course, if I infused more mana, it would have fairly decent power, but I lacked mana.

I guess I need to increase my mana or something.

By the way, I can use magic even without a separate method to gather mana.

Thinking that, I discreetly looked at the primer, and it had something like a cultivation method for magic users written inside.

Hmm... I don’t think I particularly need to learn this.

Qi and mana are the same force, so it should be fine.

“Excuse me, you’re scaring me, so please stop looking at me like that. The libra— no, that person I met in the library also said it would take me a thousand years to achieve great attainment, so I don’t think I’m that talented.”

At my words, the middle-aged man made an expression as if he had been deceived in an impossible way, then suddenly twisted his body grotesquely.

“Cough!”

Then he suddenly vomited blood.

He suffered with bloodshot eyes like someone undergoing qi deviation, and only barely suppressed the mana about to run wild and calmed it.

Fuck, that’s scary as hell. It looked like a ghost from a horror movie had appeared.

“Hoo! Hoo!”

The middle-aged man took rough breaths, then breathed deeply and said,

“The meaning of great attainment differs from person to person. For an ordinary person like me, great attainment is at most the ability to freely wander anywhere in this land, in this world, without obstruction. One must be able to freely travel even through the land you Climbers call the 30th-floor-range zone and the land you call the common zone. In that sense, it is right to say I have achieved a measure of great attainment.”

The 10th floor was combined with the 20th and 30th floors.

The middle-aged man before me was a native resident, so there would be no problem with him traveling outside the zone.

Seeing as he declared that he could freely go anywhere, his skill also seemed sufficient to cross over to the 40th floor, which was the middle floor.

“For ordinary mages, it takes thirty or forty years to reach a realm of great attainment like mine. But to him, my great attainment must be trivial. To him, great attainment likely refers to reaching upward, to the end of this Tower. If not that, it may even mean transcending this Tower itself.”

The middle-aged man let out a deep breath and said,

“I envy you, and envy you again. To reach such a supreme realm in only a thousand years. Those who could not reach it even in ten thousand years, let alone a hundred million years, are as common as grains of sand in the desert.”

At his words, I thought,

Qi deviation really is dangerous. He’s clearly gone completely insane.