Fifteen Days in Fifteen Minutes

The first ten floors of the Mythic Tower were commonly regarded as the proving grounds for novice Awakened.

Though considerably more demanding than the tutorial stages spanning Floors 1 through 3, climbers at this stage had already begun to mature. With their innate abilities fleshed out, newly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠acquired skills at their disposal, and the basic coordination of party play under their belts, meeting the standard clear requirements was generally manageable. By that same token, however, crossing the threshold into Floor 11 meant that basic competence alone was no longer enough—and the risk to one's life escalated exponentially. It was precisely why statistics from the World Awakened Association showed that the vast majority of climbers who abandoned their ascent stalled out somewhere between the 11th and 20th floors.

Faced with that grim reality, Park Hyun-gu's eyes went wide as saucers as he frantically scanned their surroundings.

"Aaargh! Over here, a potion! Bring a potion!"

"Damn it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠all, haul up more boiling oil! The bastards are scaling the ramparts!"

The trial of the 11th floor was a brutal siege. Climbers were tasked with defending a battered fortress against an endless tide of ravenous monsters.

"When the hell are the reinforcements supposed to get here?!"

"At least a fortnight! Until the next full moon rises! We just have to hold out until then!"

Three hundred and sixty hours—fifteen agonizing days. Naturally, it was never meant to be a leisurely stay.

"A f-fortnight, you say?! We're completely encircled! No food, no clean water, no way to receive supply wagons! We barely have a single week's worth of stockpiles left!"

Surrounded on all sides, cut off from resupply, and starving on meager rations. The NPC fortress commander bellowed at the top of his lungs, his face flushed purple with fury.

"Shut your damn mouths! Hold the line no matter what it takes! We will survive this!"

Though the commander refrained from voicing the quiet part aloud, several veteran soldiers caught the grim implication lingering behind his words. Even if provisions ran low, starvation wouldn't be their immediate end.

"Guh... urk..."

"A priest! Get a priest over here! He took a poisoned arrow! It's goblin venom!"

With each passing day, the number of mouths to feed would dwindle naturally. Dead men didn't demand a share of the rations.

It was a harrowing, miserable prospect.

"God damn it...!"

"Grappling hooks! Cut the ropes on the parapet! Sever them now!"

In the end, everyone caught inside the walls had only one path forward: stake their lives on the stones and somehow endure the onslaught for fifteen straight days.

Once the grim reality of the 11th floor settled over them, translucent system windows materialized before Kim Mu-saeng and Park Hyun-gu. Hyun-gu stared fixedly at the countdown timer ticking steadily downward, his chest heaving as his breath hitched in panic.

"Haah, haah. M-Mu-saeng? What now? What are we supposed to do? Am I really just supposed to sit on my hands here?"

A fifteen-day living hell. Yet for prepared Awakened, the scenario carried an entirely different weight.

"Yeah. Just don't go handing out food to anyone nearby. The NPC soldiers won't enter the Awakened tent, so hide in there and eat whatever you want in secret."

The basic parameters of the 11th floor—holding out for fifteen days amid severe resource shortages—were well-documented public knowledge. Anyone climbing the Tower packed sufficient provisions for their own survival. Plenty of climbers even brought extra rations specifically to curry favor with the garrison. Because of that, Mu-saeng remained entirely unbothered despite stepping onto the floor for the first time.

"What about you, then? What are you gonna do?" Hyun-gu asked, ducking hastily toward the shelter of the canvas tent designated for climbers.

Mu-saeng paid no mind to the frantic chaos churning through the fortress courtyard, rolling his shoulders and straightening his posture.

"Let's see... Ah, that way should do."

He swept his gaze across the perimeter. What information flickered across the lenses of his sports goggles was something Hyun-gu could only guess at.

"What's over that way? What are you planning?"

"Heh, it's a bit long to explain. Anyway, I'll be out for a little bit."

Reaching into ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠his coat, Mu-saeng carefully retrieved Sraken's Poison Fang. For driving back the swarming vanguard clinging to the outer masonry, nothing was quicker or more brutally efficient than saturating the killing grounds with high-grade poison. Once that was taken care of, the rest would fall into place.

"Don't worry, I won't be long. If you get bored, mess around with this. Just don't poke your head outside."

As if suddenly remembering something, Mu-saeng reached into his pack, pulled out a small plastic case, and tossed it into the tent. Hyun-gu caught the object reflexively, his eyes bulging as he inspected it.

"...What the hell is this? Hwatu cards?"

"What are you acting surprised for? You played Go-Stop in the office every single day whenever business was slow."

Flower cards. Actual, honest-to-god gambling cards. A purely recreational trinket devoid of magical enchantments or hidden functions. Hyun-gu swallowed hard, staring back at Mu-saeng's guileless expression and the faint, calculating glint dancing in his eyes.

"...I thought I knew you pretty damn well after all these years, but I had no idea you were this unhinged."

That was the only ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠response Hyun-gu could muster. Mu-saeng chuckled softly and stepped out into the open air.

Even if contribution is evaluated strictly by the Tower's criteria, if he literally doesn't move a muscle from inside that tent...

Denying Hyun-gu any opportunity to participate in combat was a given, but he couldn't be allowed to support the garrison either. If he hoarded his snacks and stayed curled up under canvas, his recorded contribution would remain at a clean zero percent.

Still, knowing Hyun-gu hyung's personality, he won't be able to sit still for more than a couple of days. Which means...

Cooping himself up for a full fortnight was an impossible ask. The moment he stepped outside to relieve himself, bantering with a few wounded guards could inadvertently tick his contribution upward. To eliminate that risk, Mu-saeng needed to accelerate the timetable drastically.

First: stabilize the defense using the lethal venom of Sraken's Poison Fang. And second?

Let's just put an end to the siege entirely.

Mu-saeng drew a tiny metallic component from his pocket and channeled his mana.

Resting on his palm, a silver-gray apparatus no larger than a mechanical insect began to hum.

Bzzzzzz────...

Its gossamer wings blurred into motion. It didn't need to fly far. Slipping behind the Awakened tent into a blind spot entirely hidden from the garrison's sightlines, the diminutive construct began executing Mu-saeng's precise operational directives.

Floating beside his shoulder, Wahsh observed the mechanical drone with narrow, critical eyes before muttering under his breath.

[Ho... So this was your angle all along, Kim Mu-saeng?]

"Yep. We cracked the hidden condition, after all. Until everything's in position, let's take care of the busywork first!"

Scarcely fifteen minutes after the 11th floor's trial commenced, the monstrous horde encircling the fortress hesitated, slowly breaking off their assault and recoiling from the walls.

"How's the perimeter holding up? Everything quiet?"

Standing outside the tent, Mu-saeng stretched lazily as he addressed the morning watch. His casual demeanor stood in stark contrast to the haggard, bloodshot eyes of the garrison soldiers rotating off duty, yet none of them took offense. If anything, they looked upon him with profound reverence.

"Yes, sir! Thanks entirely to you. The beasts took one whiff of the moat and lost their nerve. They haven't dared approach within bowshot."

"There were a few reckless charges during the night, but... haha! Splashing a few buckets of that water you prepared was more than enough to turn them to ash."

The soldiers knew full well that they were alive to see the dawn solely because of Mu-saeng's intervention.

"Glad to hear it. Let me know the moment your vats run low. I'll brew another batch."

"Understood, sir! Please, rest easy, Lord Kim Mu-saeng!"

Mu-saeng returned their crisp salutes with an offhand wave before ducking back inside the tent.

Littered across the groundsheet were opened snack wrappers, empty drink bottles, discarded Hwatu cards, and a scattered pile of pulp novels. Buried amid the clutter lay Park Hyun-gu, who let out an enormous, jaw-cracking yawn. Disheveled, greasy-haired, and thoroughly stagnant, he looked the very picture of a shut-in derelict—a sight Mu-saeng was intimately familiar with.

"Hwaaah... Am I just loafing around all day again, Mu-saeng?"

"Yeah, that's the plan. Still hanging in there?"

"I've been rotting in this tent for three straight days! How the hell am I supposed to be hanging in there? I'm asking because I'm going stir-crazy!"

"Pfft, just treat it like an all-expenses-paid wellness retreat. You've been working yourself to the bone managing the company without a single vacation anyway."

It had been three full days since they arrived on Floor 11. For over seventy-two hours, Hyun-gu had faithfully adhered to Mu-saeng's strict request: eat, sleep, use the chamber pot, and play cards.

Scratching his unwashed scalp vigorously, Hyun-gu hauled himself upright.

"I appreciate the sentiment, I really do... but damn it, I'm worried about you! Can you really keep holding the line just by dosing well water with that poison artifact?"

Lazing around while someone else did the heavy lifting was fine in theory, but Hyun-gu couldn't shake his unease.

"Why? Think it won't hold?"

"I mean, standard raid guides say climbers are supposed to sortie during the day when the monsters are weakened! You're supposed to dig trenches, set spike traps, and excavate pitfalls around the moat... That's how normal parties survive this floor."

Hyun-gu wasn't blind. Over the past three days, Mu-saeng had barely exerted himself either. Aside from stepping out for a few minutes at dawn to draw fresh well water and dissolve venom into the buckets, he spent most of his time lounging around.

"You can't leave everything to the NPCs," Hyun-gu pressed. "They don't follow complex tactical orders unless an Awakened supervises the field. A climber needs to be out there directing the labor."

"Good thing I didn't order them to dig ditches then."

"That's what I'm worried about! Sure, floor-66 dungeon poison is terrifying against grunts, but starting on Day 5, the siege brings in Orc Warlocks and Troll Shamans! Once their spellcasters start bombarding the ramparts from long range, what are you gonna do?"

A fifteen-day siege trial never fielded the same roster twice. Established raid data made the escalation brutally clear: spellcasters arrived on Day 5, heavy siege monsters smashed the gates on Day 7, aerial beasts bombed the courtyard on Day 10, and starting from Day 13, the trial subjected climbers to a nonstop, forty-eight-hour total offensive.

"Hyung."

"What?"

"Do you really think I don't know that?"

"Of course you know! You've run the 11th Dungeon as a porter plenty of times, so—"

"Which is why I'm telling you not to worry."

Mu-saeng mirrored Hyun-gu's tone with complete deadpan sincerity, flipping the conclusion on its head.

Don't worry about it.

Catching the utter incomprehension plastered across Hyun-gu's face, Mu-saeng added softly, "It's almost over anyway."

He turned his head toward the entrance flap, gazing past the canvas—past the fortress walls, toward an unseen point deep in the distance. Seeing that unfathomable calm, Hyun-gu threw his hands up and flopped back onto his bedroll.

"Agh, whatever! Do whatever you want! Just give me a heads-up if things go south and you need my fists. I need time to warm up."

"Haha, your fists?"

At Mu-saeng's shameless snicker, Hyun-gu sprang back up, furiously snapping jabs and crosses into the empty air.

"Hey, look at this punk! You think I'm joking? One clean one-two combo from me turns an orc's skull into tomato paste, you hear me?!"

Park Hyun-gu had awakened two decades ago with the innate ability Nuclear Fist(C). Its raw kinetic output was so absurdly destructive that the Association had automatically slapped a C-grade classification onto his registry back when he was a teenager.

"Right, right. Your fist gets reinforced, and that's it," Mu-saeng retorted smoothly. "The rest of your body has the durability of an ordinary civilian. Who was the guy who took a single hook to the solar plexus from a stray goblin, collapsed on the dirt, and puked his breakfast out...?"

"Th-that was fifteen years ago! You really have to dig up ancient history just to humiliate me?!"

His ability possessed a fatal bottleneck: devastating striking power paired with zero defensive enhancement, forcing him into suicidal close-quarters brawls. The sheer terror of facing monstrous jaws an inch from his face, the lingering trauma of broken ribs—that was why Park Hyun-gu had abandoned climbing so long ago.

"Fine! I'm going back to sleep! Don't you dare wake me up!"

"Come on, hyung, don't get sulky over a little teasing."

"I'm not sulking! You little brat..."

"I'll treat you to something incredible once we clear this. Top-grade Hanwoo beef. Deal?"

"Shut your mouth! We've got more than ten days left in this damn meat grinder! What beef?!"

"We can just eat it tomorrow when we get out."

To Hyun-gu, that sounded like the most brazen mockery yet.

"Listen to this lunatic! If we walk out of here tomorrow, I'll call you my older brother! Hell, I'll be your little sister!"

"Tsk... I'm not really looking for a younger sibling with a face like yours."

Hyun-gu roared in outrage and scrambled to his feet, lunging forward, but Mu-saeng was already ducking out the flap with practiced grace.

"Get back here, you little—!"

"Ahahaha! Sorry, sorry! Just hang tight for one more day, hyung. I'm stepping out for a bit."

"Don't bother coming back, you bastard! I swear to god...!"

Even as he bellowed curses, Hyun-gu never crossed the threshold of the tent. It was the unspoken understanding forged across nearly three decades together since their days in the orphanage: no matter how loudly they bickered, they trusted each other with their lives.

Yet as the hours dragged on and twilight gave way to pitch-black night without any sign of Mu-saeng, Hyun-gu's irritation steadily withered into gnawing anxiety.

"Where the hell did that idiot go? Making people worry for nothing..."

Where was Kim Mu-saeng, and what had he been doing all day?

The answer arrived without warning, emblazoned in shimmering, golden light.

"...Huh?"

Hyun-gu rubbed his eyes in disbelief. The 11th floor had been cleared. And then came the breakdown.

Kim Mu-saeng had actually pulled it off.