Chapter 9

Chapter 9

 

‘This structure wasn’t made for fighting.’

The mine, purification, the Forge.

Facilities placed before combat.

A structure designed to make people hold out.

"...... So."

Jin-woo muttered lowly.

He would hold out today.

Tomorrow too.

After that, there would be nothing.

[Current method: short-term survival maintenance.]

[Long-term continuation impossible.]

Round trips.

Manual labor.

All that remained was fatigue.

At this rate, it was over.

‘It was like this before too.’

He had lost everything on the ninety-eighth floor.

This time had to be different.

‘If I want to live, I have to change the structure first.’

The mine, purification, the Forge.

Everything necessary was here.

The problem was that the layout ground people down.

‘Why is it so scattered?’

Distance was not the issue.

The issue was the movement route.

Once it went wrong, he ended up making endless round trips.

It was not that there was too much work.

It was a structure where work ‘leaked away.’

That was why no matter how much he moved, nothing built up.

"......"

This Magic Tower had never assumed a situation where one person would handle everything directly.

‘Someone mines.’

‘Someone carries.’

‘Someone repairs.’

He was doing all those roles alone.

"Lumina."

[Awaiting response.]

"Is this Magic Tower originally meant to be used like this?"

[Partial design records confirmed.]

[The Magic Tower is not premised on ‘long-term single-user operation.’]

[It was designed on the premise of multi-person operation.]

[Role division standards: mining/maintenance/transport/recordkeeping/security.]

‘So I’m using it outside its design parameters....’

"Then right now, I’m not operating this thing. I’m just holding onto it."

[Judgment matches.]

[Current state is closer to ‘maintenance.’]

[Not an expansion and stabilization stage.]

[Current stage: emergency maintenance / consumption suppression.]

There were no resources and no leeway.

‘If I tamper with the current structure, a day’s water might get cut off.’

Jin-woo closed his eyes, then opened them.

Changing this Magic Tower was not a problem that could be solved by simply moving one wall.

The moment he touched the structure, he would have to recalculate everything from energy consumption to resource flow.

‘I also have to worry about Magic Tower Stability.’

《Magic Tower Stability: 36%》

《Unstable maintenance in progress》

"It isn’t time yet. Instead, I’ll reduce the movement routes first. Even a small reorganization."

[Judgment deferment recorded.]

[Priority: survival maintenance.]

"Right."

For now, the best he could do was mine, purify, carry, and get through the day.

But—

Jin-woo’s gaze turned toward the depths of the Magic Tower.

‘Someday.’

This structure, this flow, this Magic Tower itself—

"I’m going to make it run properly."

So it would not stop.

[Record.]

[Long-term goal update complete.]

Jin-woo pushed himself off the wall and slowly stood.

His preparations were still lacking.

But his direction was set.

Today, he would hold out.

Tomorrow, he would hold out too.

After that, he would prepare.

From now on, he would not merely endure. He would run this place.

And the first step was—cutting off waste.

***

CLANG—!

The sound of metal striking metal rang through the Magic Tower’s Forge.

A lump of iron heated in the flames was changing shape beneath the hammer.

The Magic Tower’s Forge.

Jin-woo gripped the Blacksmith’s Hammer +1 and repeatedly brought the hammer down.

He melted down a rusty pickaxe and drew it back out into iron plates.

The lump of iron changed form.

Connecting those iron plates one after another, he shaped a single form.

A crude iron frame.

It was a sled-type carrier with only a long handle extending from it.

"Hmm... this should be enough."

Jin-woo took a step back and examined the completed object.

Immediately, a familiar voice followed.

[The current creation has no wheels.]

[Its efficiency as a transport tool is markedly low.]

"I know."

Jin-woo shrugged as if it were nothing.

The cart he had made had no wheels.

But that was not a mistake.

It was intentional.

‘There aren’t any materials to begin with.’

He lacked the iron to make wheels, and he had no suitable tools to carve out an axle.

Most of all—

"There are a lot of stairs. Wheels would only get in the way."

Jin-woo muttered lowly and took out another item.

It was a wide, board-shaped Magic Engineering device.

On its surface, complex circuits had been drawn with a solution made by melting Mana Stones, and the Mana Stone embedded in the center was vibrating subtly.

"Do you know what this is?"

At Jin-woo’s question, a streak of light swept over the device.

[Mana circuit analysis in progress.]

[Comparing with existing records.]

[78% similarity confirmed with a Magic Engineering circuit that levitates objects.]

"Right. Exactly."

Jin-woo nodded.

"It’s a levitation Magic Engineering device."

It was a device used to move heavy resources before Regression.

His memory was not complete.

He had only barely managed to make it function.

‘When I get medicinal herbs later... I definitely have to make a memory-enhancing medicine.’

His weapon was information.

Hidden pieces, hidden rooms, special formulas.

They were in his head, but it was hard to pull them out and use them.

So he made a decision.

He needed a way to enhance his memory.

Before he forgot.

"Now...."

Jin-woo firmly attached the levitation Magic Engineering device to the bottom of the cart.

"Activate."

VWOOOM-!

When he spoke the activation word, a short, low vibration rang from inside the device.

Then the bottom of the cart began to glow faintly and operate.

Slowly.

Very steadily.

The body of the cart rose from the ground.

About fifteen centimeters.

It was fully levitating.

"What do you think?"

[Levitation device: operating normally]

[Energy efficiency: medium]

[Maximum speed: 5 km/h]

[Indoor operation standard: stability prioritized]

[Permissible weight: maximum 300 kg]

[Continuous operating time: 16 hours]

That was Lumina’s evaluation.

The corners of Jin-woo’s mouth lifted slightly.

It was a satisfied smile.

"It came out better than I thought."

The production process had been difficult, but the result exceeded his expectations.

"Then... for a test run too."

Jin-woo pulled the cart and headed to the underground mine.

There, Mana Stones he had mined in advance were piled up.

One by one.

He placed a total of twenty-eight Mana Stones onto the cart.

"It’s holding."

The body of the cart did not even tremble.

The levitation device was distributing the load stably.

Jin-woo headed up the stairs toward the Main Room just like that.

There were stairs, but now they were not enough to be called an obstacle.

"It’s definitely convenient."

In the past, this was an amount that would have made him go back and forth several times.

But now, one trip was enough.

[Work efficiency increased.]

[Output efficiency relative to labor force has increased by 10%.]

The number was not large.

But—

"The round trips are gone. This is the real thing."

This was structure.

It saved stamina.

That in itself was survival.

Jin-woo gripped the cart handle again.

[Work efficiency change detected.]

The weight had not disappeared.

And yet, strangely, the entire day felt lighter.

He mined in the mine, moved it to the Main Room, then went back to the Water Purification Room.

The round trips that had devoured the middle of that process were gone.

It was not that he mined more.

In the same amount of time, he could do other work.

‘This is right.’

[Movement route loss reduction confirmed.]

Until now, he had endured the wrong structure.

But this was different.

One small tool changed the flow.

It changed the day.

In the end, it changed survival itself.

Jin-woo gripped the handle tighter.

He moved again.

From the mine to the Main Room.

From the Main Room to the Water Purification Room.

The cart did not stop.

Movement was no longer work, but a process.

[Repeated movement route optimization in progress.]

Before, it would have been two round trips’ worth of distance.

In the meantime, stamina and time would have flown away.

Now it was different.

He moved it all at once.

He finished it in one go.

That difference piled up.

‘If I reduce this further....’

His gaze turned toward the passage.

The mine and the Water Purification Room.

The Forge and the Main Room.

He could see movement routes that were not connected.

‘There’s still a long way to go.’

[Additional optimization potential exists.]

What had changed with one cart was only a part.

But the direction was not wrong.

He could reduce it.

He could reduce it further.

At that moment—

for the first time, this Magic Tower looked like a ‘structure that could be operated.’

"This much is enough."

That was when it happened.

Ding!

《You have personally crafted a ‘tool’ necessary for survival.》

《First Crafting.》

《Survival EXP accumulates.》

"Oh... so this gives EXP too."

Even a single cart was recognized as survival.

He still did not know the criteria.

But—it was clearly something he could use.

"Hmm."

Jin-woo nodded.

"Then... the more I make, the more I benefit."

A tool made for survival.

And that choice itself led to growth.

For the current Jin-woo, there was no clearer reward than that.

That day, he rolled the cart again and again, engraving the sensation of his changed movement routes into his body.

***

"Ugh... is it morning already?"

Jin-woo groaned lowly and pushed himself up from the cot.

It was a hard bed.

A structure closer to wooden planks, so poor that even calling it a mat was embarrassing.

But now, strangely enough, it was not uncomfortable.

He naturally stretched and loosened his stiff shoulders.

"Whew...."

His body felt lighter than before.

He was definitely adapting.

That was when it happened.

Ding!

《DAY -7 ended.》

《Survival EXP accumulates.》

‘I got EXP.’

Jin-woo glanced at the message and sat on the edge of the bed.

"It’s already been seven days...."

Exactly seven days since his Regression.

He had not wasted a single day.

Water, food, mining, crafting.

He had taken it all on in order to survive.

‘Thanks to the cart, I have a little more time to spare....’

There was one thing he had begun working on with that spare time.

The end of the corridor.

A door that had been closed for a long time.

Whenever he had time, Jin-woo went there and worked on it little by little.

He straightened the warped parts, organized the fixing device, and temporarily reinforced the worn sections.

It was not easy.

To begin with, it was a door without even a blueprint.

‘Still, I have to check it.’

The traces that remained only near that door out of the entire corridor.

Scratch marks.

And the faintly altered afterscent of mana.

They were nowhere else.

Only around that door.

‘What’s beyond the door....’

It might help with survival.

At the very least, he could know the danger first.

‘Because the unknown is the most dangerous.’

"Then...."

Jin-woo turned his body to get down from the bed.

At that moment.

Ding.

"Hm?"

Another notification sounded.

It had a subtly emphasized tone, different from the one just before.

Jin-woo reflexively turned his gaze.

《Congratulations.》

"...What?"

It was a message distinctly different from the usual.

《You have survived for 7 consecutive days!》

《You have additionally acquired a large amount of EXP.》

《Accumulated EXP has exceeded the required value.》

《Level increases.》

《Current Level: 5》