Chapter 35

Chapter 35. Tower - Convoy Escort (4)

William held the meeting with Lororen as our representative.

Naturally, because bankruptcy was on the line for him, it proceeded in our favor.

Instead of receiving the original labor fee, we decided to receive two magic tools per person.

Naturally, since having magic tools would strengthen our combat power, we received them in advance.

Of course, the condition was that we would return them if the convoy escort failed.

This time, we even drew up a contract.

Lororen looked as if he had met a robber, but compared to bankruptcy, it was a cheap price.

All the magic tools Lororen was carrying were goods for sale, so explanations of their names and abilities were attached.

William chose a necklace that increased mana recovery speed and an orb that assisted magical calculations.

The speed of magical calculations was essentially the cooldown, so one could also call it an orb that reduced cooldown.

Lee Soo-young chose a bracelet enchanted with barrier magic to replace her heavy shield, and a slightly rusty belt that increased her summon slots by one.

Unlike the other magic tools, it was probably not something manufactured, but an item excavated from ruins.

The belt that increased summon slots seemed truly expensive, because Lororen pleaded with her, asking if she could please choose something else, but Lee Soo-young had already put on the belt and summoned a new slime.

The new slime was a red slime that spat fireballs.

“Your name is Fire Balloon. I’ll be counting on you from now on, Bulpung.”

It was still such a direct name that it made me laugh.

Le Thi Hoa thought hard, as if nothing particularly suited her, then chose a staff that could fire up to ten Flame Bullets a day, and a magic waterskin that could hold up to one hundred liters without changing in weight.

Both were highly versatile and looked good to sell later as starting capital.

That waterskin was something I would have coveted if I could not use the space on the Tower’s first floor.

While looking around, I found a stone with no explanation written on it.

On the outside, I could barely feel any mana from it, but inside, it felt like something was dormant.

It felt similar to a magic stone, yet different.

“What is this?”

“W-Well? I received it as an extra, called a Lucky Stone found in ruins, so I am not sure either.”

When I glanced at Le Thi Hoa, she nodded, saying he was not lying.

“Mm, I like how it looks, but I don’t want to receive this as payment, so I’ll buy it with money. How much do you want?”

I had no intention of taking something I did not even know as a substitute for a magic tool. How could I know whether it was an unlucky cursed item?

At my words, Lororen smiled like a merchant and said,

“That came from ruins, so it has value comparable to a magic tool.”

Le Thi Hoa shook her head.

Under my cold gaze, Lororen sweated and said,

“Th-That may be true, but since I do not know what it is either, I cannot price it the same as a magic tool. Seven thousand Credits... six thousand... sigh, just give me 3,500 Credits.”

After meeting his natural enemy in Le Thi Hoa, Lororen finally named a price slightly above what he thought its true value was.

He should have done that from the start.

Magic tools should cost at least several hundred thousand Credits, so just how much of a sucker did he think I was?

I handed over 3,500 Credits and placed the stone in Inventory.

Then, while choosing my reward, I saw around twenty spellbooks as well, so I pretended to consider them while secretly putting each one into Inventory and taking it out again without anyone noticing.

From the outside, it only looked as if they had gone into Inventory and come back out in around 0.1 seconds.

However, in that 0.1 seconds, I used the reincarnation clone’s body to copy the spellbook, save it on the computer and the mobile phone my main body sometimes used to listen to music, then printed and bound it into a book and stored it on the Tower’s first floor.

I did feel slightly guilty, but Lororen did not suffer any loss, so it should be fine.

For my reward magic tools, I chose a bracelet enchanted with cleaning magic that could disinfect and remove grime up to three times a day, and an anklet that allowed “Double Jump” without any limit on the number of uses.

Now, even if my whole body was covered in monster blood, I would not need to go through the trouble of washing my clothes.

“Oh, Double Jump really works.”

I immediately tested the magic tool’s performance, and when I wanted to jump again, it felt as if an invisible foothold appeared for three seconds.

To create another foothold, I absolutely had to step on the ground once, so I could not continuously run through the air, but this was also a magic tool that allowed me to stay in the air for three seconds.

After receiving our rewards, we resumed the convoy escort.

---

“Whew, if the 14th floor is already like this, the 15th floor becomes frightening.”

William sighed as he drank a Low-Grade Mana Recovery Potion purchased from the Tower Shop.

Somehow, the closer we came to York, the more the number of monsters appearing seemed to increase.

As their numbers increased, monsters naturally began breaking through the ranged attacks more often, and I dealt with most monsters that approached the wagon.

At William’s sigh, Lororen’s eyes rolled around.

“Are you hiding something else?”

“Pardon? Hahaha, of course not.”

At my question, Lororen smiled.

Whenever he spoke, I naturally ended up looking at Le Thi Hoa.

“It is ambiguous. He is not hiding anything in particular, but it feels like he is hiding something.”

At the words of Le Thi Hoa, his natural enemy, Lororen gauged our reactions and said,

“In truth, the area near the canyon road we must pass through to reach York is a zone inhabited by many monsters.”

“Even though it is near the city? Does the city not subjugate them?”

“They do, of course. However, even if they subjugate them, there are many caves around that area that are good for hiding and living in, and because of the canyon, it is a structure where it is difficult to deploy many troops at once.”

Still, when building a city, wouldn’t people choose a place without monsters like that?

Lororen answered my question.

“In truth, in the distant past, this city was once invaded by a foreign tribe. At that time as well, the Monster Ecology Research Institute, which is the recipient of the goods we are transporting, existed, and the city lacked troops at the time, so to prevent the foreign tribe from easily coming here....”

“They released monsters? Were they insane?!”

I was dumbfounded.

However, it seemed it had not been entirely insane, but a calculated action.

Most of the monsters they released at that time were killed by the invading foreign tribe, and the foreign tribe, having suffered considerable damage while dealing with the monsters, tried to invade the city, but the city easily defeated the exhausted and diminished foreign tribe.

However, it seemed they had not considered that the few surviving monsters would increase their numbers decades later.

So the research institute was conducting various studies to deal with the monsters that had taken root in the canyon, and the goods we were transporting were apparently one of the items needed for that research.

If I had to guess why spiritual medicine that made monsters grow was needed for monster subjugation, perhaps they planned to place it in the center of a trap, causing monsters to swarm to it like moths to a flame, then use it that way.

“We will now enter Harpy territory. Harpies have an extremely keen sense of smell, so they will come without fail.”

Perhaps because his own life was on the line this time, Lororen kindly warned us.

Around ten minutes after Lororen’s warning, Harpies began swarming in from the distant sky.

At a rough glance, the number of Harpies easily seemed to exceed fifty.

“Keep the wagon moving. Think only of reaching York as quickly as possible.”

At my words, Lororen soothed the frightened mules and tried to keep the wagon from stopping.

I climbed onto the cargo wagon’s canopy, drew my sword, and observed the Harpies.

A Harpy was a monster made by combining a human upper body with a bird’s lower body.

Its body size was small, about the size of an elementary school student, but compared to that size, its wings were not large, nor did they move so fast that their wingbeats were invisible like a hummingbird’s.

It was strange that they were flying at all despite having a structure that should make flight impossible, so I looked at the flow of mana. Their wingbeats produced a specific mana flow, creating the effects of an updraft that supported the Harpy’s body and a reduction in gravity.

In other words, Harpies flew through the sky using primitive magic.

“Aim for the wings rather than the head, which is hard to hit!”

If the wings were injured, they would be unable to perform those specific wingbeats, and they would naturally fall.

Harpies were not small and light like birds, so if they fell from a great height, they would die no matter what.

At my shout, Lee Soo-young and William began striking the Harpies’ wings with ranged attacks and shooting them down.

However, there were too many of them, so it was impossible for only two people’s ranged attacks to shoot down every Harpy.

Le Thi Hoa also attacked with the Flame Bullet staff she had saved, but with only ten shots per day, the Flame Bullets ran out quickly.

The Harpies that reached the wagon charged first at me, who was on top of the cargo wagon’s canopy.

I cut down the Harpies that thrust their chicken legs at me with my sword.

“No, why do all the birds in the Tower have blades on their legs?”

From the sensation through my sword, the Harpies’ bones were hollow, as if they had osteoporosis.

Well, even if they flew through the sky using primitive magic, if their bodies were to rise, they had no choice but to evolve in a direction that made their bodies lighter.

“These things are worse than Goblins if they can’t fly!”

Le Thi Hoa also shot soul beams at the Harpies and shot them down.

The range of the soul beams was short, so if they flew high, the beams did not reach properly. I see, so that is why she said it was for close combat.

I leaped from the wagon, stepped on a Harpy charging toward me, swung my sword impressively, then tried to leap into the air again.

“Ugh!”

But was it ever easy to jump again from atop something falling toward the ground?

The Harpy could not withstand my weight and dropped sharply, and I fell toward the ground together with the Harpy, as if I had stepped on a plank floating on water.

When I suddenly fell, everyone’s gazes gathered on me.

Aaaagh! This is embarrassing!

“Damn it, if only I had a lightness skill.”

I had not progressed enough to learn a lightness skill yet.

Once I went back into the reincarnation clone’s body, I needed to learn a lightness skill first.

Still, thanks to the Harpy beneath my feet acting as a cushion, I was not injured.

Naturally, the Harpy crushed beneath me died on the spot.

With my face bright red, I sprang to my feet, took a stone axe from Inventory, and threw it.

I could sell hand axes as scrap metal at least, but stone axes made by Goblins were honestly useless, so I had decided it would be fine to throw them to my heart’s content and had picked up plenty on the way.

They still did not fly anywhere near the direction I aimed, but since the sky was packed with around thirty Harpies that had swarmed the wagon without being shot down, even a rough throw hit well.

Perhaps because I threw them with my strength reinforced by internal energy, whether they hit wings, heads, or chests, every one they struck fell.

Because they had descended to target the wagon, they did not die just from falling, but a Harpy that had fallen to the ground was beneath even a Goblin.

Naturally, the fallen Harpies died to William’s sword and mine.

Once we had roughly wiped out all the Harpies that had swarmed us, everyone let out a sigh of relief.

Since the most dangerous enemies, the flying ones, were finished, it should become a little easier from now on.

It did not take more than a few minutes for us to realize that it was too early to feel relieved.

“It’s a flock of Harpies!”

Another flock of Harpies was swarming in from the sky.