Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Tower climbing was all about momentum.

As if proving that, we climbed all the way to the 8th Floor.

If someone had seen our performance, they might have called it a lightning-fast resolution.

That was how quickly we climbed.

‘Didn’t we just set a new record?’

Even in the game, I had never climbed the Tower this quickly before.

Poing had contributed greatly to that.

As if to prove it,

[Rainbow Servant Slime(Poing) 17Lv]

While climbing to the 8th Floor, Poing’s level had risen quite a bit too.

Maybe because its level had risen, it seemed to have grown a little taller in that short span of time.

‘About… 1 centimeter?’

It might have been my imagination, though.

Was it going to evolve again soon?

Well, evolution wasn’t exactly easy, so that probably wouldn’t happen. It was too early to down the kimchi soup in one shot when it had only just evolved.

More importantly.

‘When is my reward going to appear?’

I had climbed continuously from the 3rd Floor to the 8th Floor, yet I had not received a reward yet.

Instead, there was only one system window that had been floating there ever since I cleared the 3rd Floor.

[Calculating reward. Please wait.]

It was the Tower, after all, so I doubted it would pretend the rewards had never existed.

Still, it felt deeply unsettling.

The reward for the 9th Floor I had just climbed was one thing, but the 3rd Floor reward should have come out by now.

Even that had yet to appear.

It really was unpleasant.

Even in the game, I had never once experienced the [reward] itself being delayed.

‘Hmm… I’m not sure.’

Just in case, I asked Poing as well, but the only answer I got back was that it didn’t know either.

“Yaaawn.”

More importantly.

I had been feeling it for a while now, but my eyelids were heavy.

I was sleepy.

I tried pinching my thigh so I wouldn’t doze off, and I even slapped my cheeks hard with both hands.

Slap, slap.

So hard, in fact, that Poing turned around in surprise after hearing the sound.

But all of it was useless.

My consciousness kept sinking.

As if I had taken sleeping pills.

It wasn’t that I had been hit by sleep poison like last time.

If I had been hit by sleep poison, a system window would have already appeared saying I was afflicted by a [Status Effect].

“Poing.”

This hadn’t been part of the plan.

But there was nothing I could do.

“I’m going to sleep for a bit and wake up, so keep a close watch on the surroundings.”

“Okay! Ha-jin, just trust me and⎯”

At my request, Poing seemed to clench both fists and shout triumphantly.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t hear that voice.

All I could see was the shape of its mouth moving.

I must have accumulated a lot of fatigue.

Considering I couldn’t hear anything anymore.

‘Ah.’

Let me just close my eyes for a moment. If I wake up soon, I should feel better.

***

An endless white sandy beach stretched before me.

It was beautiful.

So beautiful that I wondered whether a similar landscape would unfold if every pretty jewel in the world had been gathered and scattered here.

I had been staring at that scenery in a daze when—Along with a dizzy spell, as though the world had spun out from under me, my breath suddenly caught in my throat.

[Sung Ha-jin, the current subject is afflicted by the Lich King’s Curse.]

[Concentration[F] disrupts your consciousness.]

“Puhah….”

Huff, huff. I gasped for breath.

Fuck, did I seriously get so distracted by the scenery that I forgot to breathe?

Looking at it again, the Lich King’s Curse was practically a fairy.

If not for the curse, I might have dropped dead while standing here.

It might sound stupid, but I had been momentarily entranced by the ecstatic scenery.

‘Since when have I been standing here?’

One hour?

Half a day? Or maybe the entire day…?

A fair amount of time had passed since I had stood here blankly.

But I had no way of guessing how much time had passed.

That made it even creepier.

‘I don’t think it was like this last time.’

When I turned my head, the Goddess’s Spring came into view in the middle of the vast white beach.

This was my second visit.

The first time, I had come here after being hit by sleep poison on the 2nd Floor.

This time, I had merely dozed off for a bit on the 8th Floor, and when I came to my senses, I was here.

There was one common point.

Both times, I had slept inside the Tower.

Did that mean I could come here if I slept inside the Tower?

Well, that could be checked next time.

I approached the Goddess’s Spring.

The Goddess’s Spring.

It was also the place where I had leveled up [Infinite Blink] during my previous visit.

Huh? Wait a second.

Through this Tower climb, I had gone from the 3rd Floor to the 8th Floor.

While we were climbing, Poing leveled up.

But I had not received any climbing rewards.

Naturally, I had no choice but to wonder.

Did I have to pass through the Goddess’s Spring to receive my climbing rewards?

Was that why the system window only said it was calculating the reward?

There was no need to agonize over it.

Rather than racking my brain over it, it was faster to test it with my own body.

I immediately reached my hand toward the Goddess’s Spring.

Then,

[Clear rewards for the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th Floors have been settled.]

[Due to the Goddess’s Spring’s privilege, clear rewards are converted into experience for [Trait: Infinite Blink].]

“Yep, that’s the answer.”

Apparently, I could receive the rewards from climbing the Tower through the Goddess’s Spring.

More precisely, in a direction that would grow [Infinite Blink].

[Infinite Blink: 2Lv → 3Lv]

Blink distance increases from 3.7M to 4.5M.

Ding. A clear sound rang out, and a system window appeared.

It was the signal of a level-up.

The fact that [Infinite Blink] had grown was a happy thing, but the key part came next.

-[Path of Fire]: When Blink activates, intense flames scatter along the Blink path. These flames continuously damage enemies along the path and temporarily apply Status Effect-Flame.

-[Path of Frost]: Cold frost scatters along the Blink path, applying Status Effect-Frostbite to enemies along the path. Enemies affected by Frostbite have their movement speed and attack speed greatly reduced.

-[Control Tower]: Within Blink’s maximum range, you can precisely adjust the Blink distance.

Mm-hmm. They were all familiar contents.

I had seen each of them once before.

Among them, there was one that tempted me.

Especially [Control Tower].

Of course, I had no intention of choosing it.

Maybe if the Blink distance became so wide that I could not handle it, but for now, I was confident I could control it.

It was still too early.

So let’s quickly pass over the ones I had already seen.

-[Transposition Blink]: Designate a monster under your Command and rearrange its position with the current subject.

Oh, this one looked pretty good too.

Poing mainly fought in close combat, and I specialized in long range.

If Poing and I could swap positions with each other, I would be able to use far more varied strategies than I could now.

[Additional choices open according to the subject’s Tower climbing Contribution and achievements.]

-Emergency Escape: When your life is in danger, Blink a short distance. Remaining Blink count is not consumed.

-Cooldown: 24 hours

This was it!

To be honest, until now, there had been choices I had thought would be useful.

But there had not been anything that made me think, this is definitely it!

But I felt it.

I had to choose that.

Objectively speaking, my body was weak.

For baby Pingkkyu Gyongdyu, even a single normal hit from a goblin was a fatal wound.

Right now, I was still on the lower floors, but on the higher floors I would climb in the future, ridiculous monsters swarmed everywhere.

Considering the future, this was an ability I absolutely needed.

There were plenty of reasons to choose it, but no reason not to.

Then I had to grab it before someone else took it.

[You have selected Emergency Escape.]

[The evolved Trait is applied to Infinite Blink.]

Since I had grown one step stronger, it was time to go back.

***

My eyes opened on their own.

Just a moment ago, I had been so tired that my eyelids felt heavy, but now my mind was refreshed.

I was brimming with so much energy that I felt as if I could start tap dancing in place right away.

The reason was simple.

I had grown stronger through the Goddess’s Spring.

There was an old saying that even a thousand-li journey begins with a single step.

Right now, it might only be the distance of one step.

But someday, I would travel a thousand li with a single Blink.

Even overseas travel with one Blink was not just a dream.

Well, that was a story for the distant future, so enough of that.

“Poing.”

“Poing.”

“…Poing?”

I suddenly realized my side felt empty, so I called Poing, but there was no answer.

All that came back was a dry echo.

I hurriedly looked around, but it was nowhere to be seen.

Normally, it would have come scurrying over the moment I called.

‘What is this? Did something happen?’

With Poing’s skill, most goblins would all be beaten down.

Even knowing there probably would not be a problem, I still grew needlessly anxious.

Especially because I could not tell how much time had passed after I fell asleep.

Besides, this was inside the Tower.

Even if we had already cleared the 8th Floor, I could not let my guard down.

‘An Unexplored Area appeared on the 2nd Floor too, completely out of nowhere.’

Maybe there was an unexpected variable on the 8th Floor as well.

It was around the time I was searching for Poing while keeping watch in every direction.

Rustle, rustle.

I sensed a presence in the bushes.

Click. I gripped my wands with both hands.

So I could fire magic at any time, one hand aimed at the bushes.

The wand in my other hand was for Blink.

Just as the tension was rising—Boing.

Poing suddenly popped out from the bushes.

“Ha-jin!”

Poing smiled bashfully and leaped into my arms.

At that sight, the tension left me.

Good grief. I had been startled, thinking something had happened.

But something seemed strange.

What on earth had it been doing? It was covered in mud from head to toe.

Looking closer, something was clutched in Poing’s hand.

‘I don’t think it had anything like that when I saw it before.’

Strange.

Maybe it noticed my gaze, because Poing beat me to it and spoke first.

“There wath something buried underground, tho I dug it upsh.”

Whatever it had been doing, it had gotten so out of breath that it had bitten its tongue.

I was dumbfounded.

At a glance, it looked like a rectangular stone block.

It was covered in mud.

When I smelled it, it seemed to give off a nasty odor too.

What on earth had it brought back?

When I rubbed away the clumps of mud stuck to the side, its true identity was revealed.

[Golden Goblin’s Treasure Chest]

-It is the Golden Goblin’s treasure box.

It was an extremely brief description.

On the other hand, when I saw it, I inwardly screamed.

‘Fuck.’

Were my eyes playing tricks on me?

Only after rubbing my eyes a couple of times did I realize reality.

I struck wild ginseng!!

Poing!

I see you in a whole new light.

Who knew such a lucky charm existed?

[Golden Goblin’s Treasure Chest] was an item that appeared in the 1st to 10th Floor range, where goblins appeared.

The drop location was random, and the probability was low.

So low, in fact, that even I had only ever obtained it once in the game.

Rare items were inside the treasure chest.

“Whew.”

I struggled to calm my trembling heart.

Let’s not overreact.

I knew it very well.

There were a few clichés when it came to draws.

One of them was that if you started overreacting before drawing, even what should have come out would not come out.

It was an unchanging truth.

So.

I picked the mud back up from the ground and painted it over the golden chest again.

“Ha-jin, what are you doing?”

“This is just a chest. Yeah… just a chest.”

After hypnotizing myself, I casually flung the chest open.

POP!

Golden smoke billowed up, and an item appeared.

[Command Monster Summon Ticket has been issued.]

First, one item.

Not bad.

Even in-game, one item appeared from [Golden Goblin’s Treasure Chest] at a 90% rate.

Most users who obtained [Golden Goblin’s Treasure Chest] stopped here.

That was why it was called the cursed 90%.

But I was not finished.

[Special Ability Reset Elixir has been issued.]

The probability of two items coming out was the remaining 9.9%.

The probability of the maximum number, three items, appearing was only 0.1%.

I did not even hope for that much.

Because I knew that would be greed.

[Special Ability Reset Elixir has been issued.]

Huh? Fuck.

“It came out!!!”