The Sorcerer Who Remembers
A brilliant glow, like a splinter sheared from the sun, was already flaring in Geum Soo-ah's palm.
"Director."
"Maintain your guard. Mr. Kim Mu-saeng, please step behind us."
Yoon Pyo was no different. His neatly settled hair turned a vivid, icy blue and bristled on end. Both of them had already realized that this situation was anything but normal. Under such circumstances, their foremost objective was to return alive—which naturally required securing Kim Mu-saeng, the very man Chairman Geum Byeong-cheol was so eager to meet.
"Ah, no, no, I'm fine. I need to have a little chat with it first."
Yet what were they supposed to do when the very man they were meant to protect waved them off and stepped forward? Furthermore, have a conversation?
"Excuse me?"
"A conversation... with Mama?"
"You heard it just now," Mu-saeng said, looking at the flabbergasted pair. "'I have been waiting,' and 'human of the mark.' It was waiting for me, so naturally we ought to talk first. And while I'm at it, I can ask for a favor or two."
Why else would he have entered the 55th Dungeon in the first place? His intention from the very beginning had been to speak with it. That reception might prove amicable, or it might turn hostile. An amicable greeting was well and good, but hostility was far more likely—which was precisely why he had dragged these two along as bodyguards.
"Th-that's... wait, what?"
"Are you saying... 'human of the mark' refers to you, Mr. Kim Mu-saeng?"
Seeing them so utterly stunned, Mu-saeng chuckled heartily and strolled forward. "You folks from Geumseong have quite a sense of humor. Well, of course it's me! Why else would I have come here?"
His brazen nonchalance left Geum Soo-ah and Yoon Pyo at a complete loss. Neither had ever witnessed anything like this. A conversation? An Awakener might exchange a few taunts with a dungeon boss, but gleaning actual, actionable information was impossible... or at least, that had always been the rule. Yet what was happening right now? An unprecedented anomaly had surfaced, and an Awakener who looked like he hadn't even climbed past the Tower's 10th floor was greeting it with a grin.
What in the world is this 'mark' in the first place...?
Both shared the same burning question, but had no way of divining an answer. And what stance could they possibly adopt?
"Sorcerer Maia! I'm sorry about wrecking your sanctuary back on the 5th floor! But honestly, there was no need to brand me with such a bloodthirsty mark, was there?!"
All they could do was follow Mu-saeng's lead as he yelled into the void.
When no answer came, Mu-saeng raised his voice again.
"That sanctuary was practically falling apart anyway, completely useless as a home... Could it be that what you actually wanted was this?"
With a smooth motion, he drew something out—an object faintly pulsing with residual light. Inscribed across its surface was the exact same intricate pattern as the mana circuits running through the surrounding chamber.
It was the Guardian's Core.
"...Did you not destroy it?"
An elderly voice reverberated through the entire corridor.
Mu-saeng offered a subtle grin and explained, "The Guardian went berserk, so I couldn't save the house, but I'm not the kind of person who carelessly smashes other people's belongings. And in the process, I learned a thing or two about Mama's—ahem, Sorcerer Maia's—magitech."
The notification and reward he had received upon fulfilling the hidden condition on the 5th floor had certainly not carried a friendly tone. Its nuance was unmistakably clear: You destroyed my sanctuary, so I will have my vengeance. Yet had that ramshackle house truly functioned as a 'sanctuary'? From the very moment Mu-saeng saw those words, he had pondered what Sorcerer Maia's sanctuary truly was.
"This was... a special Guardian to you, wasn't it?"
A Guardian. A Guardian hidden deep beneath a shabby, collapsing house. If a sanctuary meant a place where one could truly rest in peace, he had reasoned that it was not the dilapidated house itself, but this very Guardian that held the answer.
"Kkyakyakyakyat! To think it would actually react like that. Comparing it to Joo Yerin proved spot-on, eh, Kim Mu-saeng?"
Wahsh's remark grated slightly on his nerves, but the duck wasn't wrong. When Mu-saeng had explained his reasoning to Wahsh, he had drawn upon his own circumstances. The thing most precious to you. The thing you wanted to hide away from the world. Mu-saeng had pointed out that if he had possessed the power, he would have hidden Joo Yerin in the safest refuge imaginable. It was that very analogy that had convinced Wahsh to buy into this gamble.
Great. Now all I have to do is hand over this Guardian's Core... and ask for a new Guardian in return.
Whether Maia reused this core or built one from scratch didn't matter. What Mu-saeng needed was a Guardian. Whether this core was used or not, all that mattered was securing the outcome he desired. The realization that his deduction had hit the bullseye brought a smug grin to his lips.
"Hhahahahahat! How intriguing. That thing beside you, as well... Words were lost on the first one, but you might be different."
At the sound of Maia's echoing reply, the smile vanished from Mu-saeng's face.
The thing beside him?
"Does it mean... us?"
"The first one?"
Geum Soo-ah and Yoon Pyo murmured in confusion.
Mu-saeng did not answer. He had caught several bizarre implications in those words.
The first one...? No, wait. How could it know that?
The Mark of Sorcerer Maia was acquired by completing the hidden condition on the 5th floor. That brand was almost certainly hostile by design. But setting that aside...
It's true that I was the second person to clear the 5th floor's hidden condition. But that... how could it possibly know that?
How could Sorcerer Maia, who was inside a dungeon, be aware of that? Even within the Tower itself, monsters and NPCs shouldn't know the clearance order of hidden conditions. These were instances, weren't they? The Tower and its dungeons operated on isolated instances, so how could it possibly know? A chill crept up Mu-saeng's spine, making his hair stand on end.
"Just as you have many questions, I harbor many of my own. Come, human of the second mark. Let us converse here, outside the Tower."
This place was not the Tower; it was a dungeon. Yet it was virtually identical to the Tower—sharing the exact same environment, the same layout, lacking only the system quests...
"D-Director? Did it just say—"
"Does it understand what a dungeon is? A monster? No, that's impossible—"
Sorcerer Maia understood. It knew this place was a dungeon, not the Tower. In other words, Maia was fully aware of the nature of its own existence!
Whirrrrrr—
"Whoa!?"
"The floor is moving."
The crimson mana circuits shifted back to an azure glow. At the same time, the section of flooring beneath the three began gliding forward like a moving walkway.
They passed through several massive gates. Each time they did, Yoon Pyo and Geum Soo-ah flinched, their eyes darting to the Guardians stationed nearby.
Mu-saeng understood their tension all too well, having reviewed the Southeast Asian One Way Group's intelligence reports. Countless Guardians had to be breached to reach Sorcerer Maia. Their designs and functions varied wildly, prompting the Thailand One Way Group to record in their report that "it felt as though we were battling every single monster encountered up to the 55th floor all over again."
Passing by such monstrosities without raising a weapon, leaving them standing pristine at their backs, did not inspire relief—it only ratcheted up their dread. If the figure waiting far ahead were to snap its fingers, every single one of those Guardians would swarm them in an instant.
"Mama."
Sorcerer Maia.
Yoon Pyo and Geum Soo-ah remained silent. Only Mu-saeng registered surprise at a revelation absent from any intelligence dossier.
"You're a woman...?"
He had naturally assumed Maia was male, but standing before them was an elderly woman. One Way Group's dossiers had never mentioned such a detail, so how could he have known?
"Come to think of it, the nickname 'Mama' fits you quite well."
"What are you saying, Mr. Kim Mu-saeng? Sorcerer Maia is—"
Geum Soo-ah grew flustered and tried to cut him off, embarrassed by his candid remark.
What answered them was a hearty burst of laughter.
"Hhahahat! Do you seek to classify a non-human being by human gender?"
Maia bore the appearance of an elderly human woman wearing what looked like sports goggles. Yet there was no way Sorcerer Maia was human. Above all, the voice echoing from the figure was beyond genderless—it bordered on masculine. Just as Maia had pointed out, dwelling on gender was an utterly absurd notion.
"Well, even if you aren't actually an old lady, in Korea we have a tradition of filial respect, honoring our elders and all that. I only meant that I'm glad I didn't destroy something precious to an elder and kept it safe, that's all."
Mu-saeng was not genuinely arguing about the gender of a 55th-floor boss monster. He was simply trying to build rapport and score some goodwill. The social survival instincts he had honed over thirteen years as a dungeon sherpa, scraping for every crumb of favor from insufferable clients, had just kicked into high gear.
"To bear my mark and still display such an attitude was entertaining enough. Now it borders on miraculous, human."
"I'm glad you're pleased."
"Pleased? Hhahahat! Is that so? Do you believe I have taken a liking to you?"
Though Mu-saeng maintained a humble posture, his brazenness shone through clearly. Geum Soo-ah and Yoon Pyo could only gawk at his manner of dealing with a Tower monster, something neither had ever witnessed in their lives. Of course, that was only because they didn't know Mu-saeng very well. This wasn't even true shamelessness.
"Which means that if I offer this to you, you won't refuse it... and surely you'll offer a modest reward in return to the one who brought back what you cherish."
This was what true shamelessness looked like.
Mu-saeng carefully extended the Guardian's Core he had salvaged from the 5th floor. That was his personal philosophy. If you want to receive something, give first. The moment you treat an interaction like a transaction, the other party starts weighing terms and bargaining. If you give first—especially to an intelligent being capable of emotion, one who had created something 'precious' in the first place—they would find it hard to remain unmoved.
"...Whether I am pleased remains to be seen, but you are undeniably a surprising human. I assumed you would rely on the might of the thing beside you to coerce me."
Mu-saeng was certain he had struck a chord. He had done enough. As long as he steered the conversation smoothly, securing a Guardian would be child's play.
"Then—"
"However, I cannot grant what you desire, human."
"...Pardon?"
"...The me outside the Tower cannot bring harm to the me inside the Tower, can I?"
The gaze behind the goggles shifted in an instant. At the same time, the expressions of the humans changed drastically.
"So it truly understands what a dungeon is."
"B-but how...? Nothing like this has ever happened in the 55th Dungeon, let alone on the Tower's 55th floor!"
Maia paid no heed to Yoon Pyo and Geum Soo-ah's murmurs. It simply looked at them. At Mu-saeng, at Geum Soo-ah, at Yoon Pyo.
And...
"Kkyakyakyat. Clever indeed, Sorcerer. You certainly don't belong on the 55th floor."
At Wahsh.
Sorcerer Maia adjusted its goggles and stared intently at the duck.
"I have lived for one thousand nine hundred and forty-eight years by this planet's reckoning. Would I fail to grasp even that much? Dungeon or whatever else, names hold no meaning. The 55th floor? The concept of floors is no different. What truly matters is..."
Maia paused and muttered, "Seven thousand, six hundred, and forty-five times... Dead yet never truly dying; living yet never truly alive. What matters is this endlessly repeating cycle of eternity."
Every climb of the Tower was instanced to the individual. Dungeons were much the same, merely granting a twenty-minute buffer. Even if someone challenged Maia and struck it down, the moment the next challenger arrived, Maia would be there again. Even if Maia fended off an intruder, when a new challenger arrived, Maia would face them anew. Completely from scratch. As if nothing prior had ever occurred.
That was how it was supposed to be.
"I cannot fathom it. What is the Tower?"
Yet what if an entity retained every single one of those memories?
Maia asked the question.