Chapter 2

Chapter 2

 

After making his decision, he moved toward the Magic Tower.

A door buried among the rocks.

Seen up close, it was far too simple.

When he placed his hand on it and pushed, he felt a heavy resistance.

The door opened with a low scrape.

More easily than he had expected.

“Cough….”

Stale air poured out from inside all at once.

Jin-woo coughed for a moment and stepped inside.

There was nothing splendid about it.

A rough stone passage.

A low ceiling.

Walls that were too orderly.

It was old, but there were no signs of neglect.

It had not been abandoned.

It had stopped.

‘If it’s here….’

A strange certainty came over him.

A certainty that he could survive here.

‘Just because I regressed doesn’t mean there’s anything I can do.’

Information alone was not enough.

‘An Arch Lich and a Bone Dragon.’

Jin-woo gritted his teeth.

He ran his fingertips over the wall of the Magic Tower.

Almost no dust came away.

Endure, build, and overturn.

‘That means I have to move differently.’

Before that combination, humanity had lost everything it had built over ninety-eight floors in a single blow.

He could not overturn it alone.

That was why—

Jin-woo had sought out the Magic Tower.

‘There’s no dust.’

That made it even stranger.

Despite how old it was, it was clean, as if someone had been maintaining it.

Jin-woo looked around the Magic Tower.

It was different from what he had expected.

How old is this place?

He was not disappointed.

‘I’ll look through it first.’

Most of the doors were locked.

‘It wasn’t abandoned… it had been stopped.’

And at the end of the passage.

There was one space that was open.

“This place….”

At the end of the passage, the space suddenly widened.

A circular hall.

The ceiling was higher than he had expected, and faint patterns ran along the walls.

They were broken and worn, but the structure aligned toward the center was still clear.

There was nothing in the middle of the hall.

Even so, his gaze was naturally drawn there.

The center was empty.

And yet, it drew the eye.

Jin-woo sensed it.

This was the main room of the Magic Tower.

‘I’m sure this is the center of the Magic Tower.’

With his conviction firm, Jin-woo took a step forward.

The moment he set foot inside the main room—

Hummmm.

An extremely faint vibration traveled through the floor.

At the same time, a bluish light briefly gathered on the walls before disappearing.

The air changed.

It felt as if the space that had been frozen still was slowly catching its breath.

Something was confirming him.

[Intrusion confirmed…….]

[Attempting to call administrator.]

A voice rang out.

It did not come from a single point.

It was as though the entire Magic Tower was speaking at once.

[Call failed.]

A brief silence.

[Searching for administrator…….]

[Administrator signal not confirmed.]

Silence again.

《Administrator absence confirmed.》

A short silence passed.

A stillness, as if the entire Magic Tower were catching its breath.

Then the voice rang out once more.

[Administrator vacancy state prolonged.]

[Initiating Emergency Management Protocol.]

Jin-woo frowned.

He did not like the feeling of this.

This was not a proposal.

Light spread beneath his feet.

His body understood before his mind did.

He could not run.

The Tower always pretended to offer choices.

[Selecting acting holder of management authority based on current entity.]

The patterns on the walls lit up at once.

The light slowly moved and gathered beneath Jin-woo’s feet.

[Target confirmed.]

[Rune response suitable.]

[No existing administrator authority confirmed.]

A momentary pause.

[Proceeding with Temporary Administrator registration.]

“……Hah.”

Jin-woo exhaled briefly.

It seemed he had never been given the choice to refuse in the first place.

Still, it was not bad.

At the very least, he could escape the ‘route of being blindly shoved to the second floor.’

‘The Magic Tower was what I’d been aiming for in the first place.’

“Even if I’m only a Temporary Administrator….”

He muttered as if to himself.

“Someday, I’ll become the real thing.”

[Temporary Administrator registration complete.]

[Temporary Administrator Grade: D]

Once the registration procedure ended, blue light rose from Jin-woo’s body.

A familiar sensation.

A reaction he knew all too well.

‘Awakening…?’

It was Awakening.

《Awakened State confirmed.》

《Classification: Hunter.》

《Branch: Crafting, Management.》

The light faded.

It had only been for a brief moment, but Jin-woo had clearly felt it.

His strength had grown a little more solid.

He clenched his fist.

In the past, it would have been enough strength to shatter a boulder.

Right now, it was not yet at that level.

‘I’m still weak.’

When he had reached the ninety-eighth floor, his level had been in the late nineties.

Compared to that, his current body was pitiful.

Even so.

“Still, for now, this is enough.”

Jin-woo unclenched his fist.

The Awakening was over.

And then.

Ding!

《Skill granted.》

The first skill granted immediately after Awakening.

A Hunter’s direction was divided based on this.

Combat-type or support-type.

Jin-woo held his breath for a moment.

Would it be the same as before his regression?

《Skill: Magic Engineering LV. 1》

……It was the same.

The corners of Jin-woo’s mouth rose ever so slightly.

‘As expected.’

People said Awakening skills were random.

But now, it was different.

‘So it’s fixed. If it weren’t, I’d have received a different skill.’

That meant the Tower placed ‘people’ into predetermined molds.

And if he knew the mold, he would also find a way to twist it.

Jin-woo felt as if he had grasped that possibility in his hand.

“Phew….”

Jin-woo let out a long breath.

He had found the Magic Tower.

He had finished Awakening as well.

Up to this point, everything had gone according to plan.

“Now, what’s left is….”

He slowly looked around the Magic Tower.

An old, empty space, far too quiet to be called normal.

He still did not know whether he could survive here until the end.

Still—

‘I have to.’

In order to survive.

Jin-woo spoke quietly.

“This life… starts from here.”

***

Jin-woo pressed his back to the gap in the Magic Tower’s door and exhaled in one breath.

Outside was the first floor.

Inside was the Magic Tower.

The air was different with only a single boundary between them.

“For now… this is as far as the safety line goes.”

‘Good. First, I need to check.’

In order to survive in the Tower.

He first needed to check what he had.

Jin-woo checked his perk.

《Perk: Enhancement (Transcendence)》

A simple name.

That was why it bothered him more.

In the Tower, simple things were usually either the most dangerous or the most useful.

‘The options are….’

Jin-woo looked at his shoes.

A target he had already used it on once.

Whether he could enhance them again, or whether some other condition would be attached—

《Target: Equipment》

《Available additional enhancements: 0》

“…As expected.”

Jin-woo laughed briefly.

“If it were infinite, would this Tower even be the Tower?”

It was within expectations.

The shoes were done.

He needed to look at his next piece of equipment.

“Then….”

His gaze naturally moved up along his body.

The clothes he was wearing now.

[Checkered Shirt]

Grade: F

Warmth: F

Durability: 8

It was a thin cloth shirt.

It had almost no protective performance, and calling it cold-weather gear would be embarrassing.

But Jin-woo knew.

On the first floor, what he needed first was not “victory,” but “endurance.”

When night came, the temperature would fall, and if his stamina dropped then, his options would disappear.

On the ninety-eighth floor, he had learned that formula not through hundreds of repetitions, but with his own body.

“Enhance.”

Blue light spread quietly and brushed over the hem of his shirt.

《Target: Equipment》

《Enhancement applicable.》

A moment later.

[Checkered Shirt +1]

Grade: F

Warmth: F-

Durability: 8

Enhancement Effect: Insulation performance improved.

Jin-woo stood without saying a word.

Deliberately, he did not move.

The wind blew.

The blades of grass swayed, and cold air brushed over his body.

And yet—

‘…It isn’t being taken.’

His body heat did not escape easily.

Jin-woo rolled his shoulders.

The trembling had lessened.

In this Tower, less trembling meant surviving tonight.

‘It’s only one grade’s difference, but for now, this is enough.’

Jin-woo drew the hem of his shirt closed once and nodded.

“Good.”

It was a small choice.

These had to accumulate if he wanted to live.

‘Tonight… I’ll go with this.’

Jin-woo moved toward the inside of the Magic Tower.

It was not flashy.

Instead, it let him live longer.

“Hup.”

He got to his feet.

His rest was over.

“Then what should I start with? It’s good that I found the Magic Tower, but now….”

Beeep—

That was when it happened.

In the center of the main room, along with a faint vibration, dim light rippled.

[Magic Tower management core, Magic Core Lumina.]

[Responding to Temporary Administrator call.]

Blue light compressed into a single point.

The air pressed down.

It had no form.

But without question, ‘something’ was looking down at him.

Jin-woo lowered his center of gravity on reflex.

‘An enemy?’

He was a Hunter who had survived up to the ninety-eighth floor.

What moved before thought was not calculation, but experience.

[Hostility assessment: unnecessary.]

[Current target does not conflict with the Temporary Administrator.]

“…Who are you?”

Jin-woo relaxed his stance.

He did not know what it was, but there did not seem to be any reason to be hostile.

“But what’s a Magic Core?”

[Magic Tower general management system.]

‘A general management system… Does that mean it’s in charge of maintenance?’

“You’re not my enemy, right?”

Jin-woo’s gaze wavered slightly.

In the Tower, that single question divided life and death.

[Affirmative.]

[Temporary Administrator support process active.]

“Good.”

Jin-woo nodded.

He had already been at a loss as to where to start.

Just knowing Lumina existed made him feel, at the very least, that he was not alone.

Beep-beep-

That was when it happened.

The light in the main room began to flicker.

It did not look like a normal reaction.

“What’s wrong with it?”

[Energy shortage detected.]

[Remaining Energy: 15%]

Jin-woo did not move for a moment.

He looked at the number again.

15%.

‘This… isn’t a number that can hold out.’

He could tell even by instinct.

At this level, it was not maintenance.

It was right before collapse.

The air inside the Magic Tower trembled faintly.

An instability he had not felt until a moment ago.

‘Has it already started?’

If he did not move right now,

this place would no longer be a ‘base’—

it would become a tomb that trapped him.

[Estimated functional shutdown: 03:00:00]

[On shutdown: Entire Magic Tower transitions to ‘Dormancy’]

Jin-woo calculated immediately.

If he had three hours, then before night fell, there was almost no “time to do anything.”

“I’ll have to move right away.”

This was where he had to survive.

In order for him to survive, he needed this Magic Tower.

“Good. Then how do I supply energy?”

[Searching for energy supply methods.]

[Recommended Material: Adamantium.]