Treasure Hunt

"I saw through your illusion, so now give us what you owe and let us go."

She spoke with such brazen confidence — perhaps she'd been through something similar in her first regression.

At Heijeong's words, the fairy clamped her mouth shut, as if the jab had struck dead center.

Heijeong shot me a look telling me to let go, so I released the fairy from my grip.

The fairy fluttered her wings in midair, then puffed out her cheeks in obvious indignation and folded her arms.

Now that I had her out in the open, she was actually rather cute.

After glaring at us for a moment, the fairy nodded emphatically.

"Fine! A promise is a promise!"

She flew up above our heads, and in the same instant rainbow-colored dust drifted down from her wings — over our faces, from the tops of our heads down to our shoulders.

The dust touched the tip of my nose, but I felt nothing at all.

The fairy spun a full circle in the air.

"There! Blessing bestowed! Now pick one of the two!"

"Pick what?"

"Enormous luck for a single day! Or a slow trickle of luck for a whole month!"

She'd already showered us in the stuff, and now she wanted us to choose… Shouldn't she have asked before sprinkling it all over us?

"Hurry up! 30 seconds left!"

Hmm. What was the right call here?

Enormous luck for a day, or modest luck for a month. A single day would only cover Floor 28. Factor in the rest time in the Waiting Room, and the luck would likely run out before we even set foot on Floor 29.

By any reasonable calculation, the month was the better pick.

'But if she's making us choose, there might be something luck-related waiting on Floor 28…'

I couldn't be certain. Few of the Tower's trials leaned heavily on chance.

Still, no need to worry. I had Heijeong. I turned to look at her.

The moment our eyes met, she smiled brightly.

That meant she knew something.

"I'll take the enormous luck for a day."

"Yes! Starting now, 24 hours! Well then, bye-bye!"

Before I could ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠even squeeze in a word with Heijeong, the notification window popped up.

After sending Dobby off to the shower, I messaged Heijeong.

Normally I would have checked my status window first, but… I was curious why she'd chosen the single day of luck out of all the fairy's blessings.

Since she kept insisting I'd know once I got there, I didn't feel like pressing for more about Floor 28. But now that I supposedly had enormous luck on my side, a random curiosity sprang up.

I'd once heard that the pleasure of gambling rivaled that of drugs. Plenty of climbers must have dumped their points into random boxes, and the success stories of the few who hit it big would surely have circulated through the community like ghost tales.

Honestly, their absence was a blessing — but with enormous luck now in my pocket, I couldn't help feeling a little wistful.

'If Koreans had built the Tower of Trials, there'd absolutely be random boxes in it.'

And they'd have sold like hotcakes, too. There would have been far more climbers washing out, though.

Heijeong and I exchanged a quick "good work" and parted ways, after which I opened my status window.

Apart from every stat ticking up by roughly 2 points and the new Illusion Resistance skill, not much had changed.

Illusion resistance, huh…

Hmm. Hard to say what it was worth. Enemies who wielded illusions had been rare enough to count on one hand: the skill-thieving clown on Floor 8, the Great Warrior of Fear, and now the fairy on Floor 27.

Would a level 1 Illusion Resistance really change all that much?

The moment the question formed, a bright ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠idea struck me.

'Combat training should do the trick, right?'

The Great Warrior summoned in the training room couldn't properly wield his god's power, but the gremlin and the fairy would be a different story.

There were training opponents I'd never even considered, simply because I'd lacked the Illusion Resistance skill until now.

Well, since it wouldn't be real combat, the stat gains wouldn't amount to much — but raising Illusion Resistance's skill level seemed to be what actually mattered here.

'You never know when an illusion-wielding enemy will show up.'

Better to train myself to see through illusions than to grind my body for nothing.

Right on cue, Dobby pushed open the bathroom door and shuffled out. Since he hadn't actually been to the floor and I'd ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠only had him wash up, he'd been remarkably quick about it.

"What's this? You've still got sleep crusted in your eyes."

"Kkiik?"

Dobby scrubbed at his eyes in a hurry, then put on a thoroughly bewildered expression. I'd lied as a joke, after all.

He shot me a sidelong glare.

"Kkiik! Suyeok is a liar!"

"Pfft, guilty as charged. Go warm up in the training room. I'll wash up and join you in a bit."

"Kkiik! Got it!"

The combat training had been satisfying. It hadn't been intense enough to raise my stats, but Illusion Resistance had climbed a full two levels because of it.

Afterward I lay down in bed, but sleep refused to come, so I ended up browsing the community instead.

Nothing worth reading, though, so I just scrolled in a daze.

Maybe I'd finally settled into life in the Tower, because a vague sense of tedium had crept in. Back on the lower floors, I'd been wound tight even inside the Waiting Room… and now all I felt was boredom.

If it were up to me, I'd have spent this time climbing the Tower solo, floor after floor.

'I really have changed a lot, haven't I.'

Every time I caught myself realizing it, the feeling struck me anew. It hadn't even been all that long, yet my life on Earth already felt distant. It wasn't a pleasant sensation. It was exactly how I'd felt during my military service…

Probably because the trials arrived at regular, methodical intervals. Repetition — until it made you numbly, deeply accustomed.

'Hmm, idling away time like this isn't good…'

Humans were creatures of forgetting, so I called my resolve from the lower floors back to mind. Give everything, never grow careless, keep growing, and climb.

But no fire came.

The strongest opponent I could summon for combat training was the Factory Supervisor. And I could handle the difficulty-boosted Supervisor with laughable ease.

My stat gains were shrinking with every session, too.

'I need new opponents.'

I needed enemies in the training room who could keep me on a knife's edge and drive me further. Heijeong had said the stretch up to the Floor 30 Rest Stop wasn't all that hard… so I probably wouldn't meet one until Floor 31 at the earliest.

'Whew… Still, I can't just sit around doing nothing.'

The moment I made up my mind, I rose from the bed. If fighting the Supervisor had become easy, I'd simply fight under a self-imposed penalty.

What penalty, though? One hand only? Dagger only?

Then I suddenly recalled my desperate brawl with the Experiment Subject on Floor 27. I could test out some close-quarters techniques… Hmm, no. Better to start simple — wielding the axe one-handed.

Before my vision had even finished sharpening, the salty tang of the sea washed over me. Then, beyond a stretch of white sand, a dazzlingly blue ocean unfurled before my eyes.

Waves rolled up the beach, scattering white foam before sliding back out again.

How long had it been since I last stood before the sea? It felt as though something in my chest had been flung wide open.

After a brief moment of drinking it in, I turned my attention back to the Tower's message.

A treasure hunt…

Against the surge of joy, a smile crept naturally onto my lips.

"So this is why you told me to come see it for myself."

"I told you, didn't I? Experiencing it beats hearing about it beforehand. Hnngh—!"

Heijeong grinned and stretched her arms up in a long, luxurious yawn. Her hair scattered in the sea breeze, baring the graceful line of her neck.

I cleared my throat and turned my gaze back to the ocean.

"Dobby didn't come along this time either."

"It's a treasure-hunting floor."

"Right, fair enough. Still — if the enormous luck is actually in effect, does that mean we can just grab whatever chest we stumble on?"

"Beats me. Who knows. Well, maybe you'll get a hunch, like your Sixth Sense does, the moment you lay eyes on the right chest."

"Two hours… They really don't give us much time, do they? Guess I'd better search hard."

"Oh, come on. With enormous luck on our side, do we seriously need to?"

Heijeong abruptly shrugged off her robe. Startled, I jerked my gaze away — but thankfully she was dressed underneath. Whether she'd planned ahead or not, she wore a black short-sleeved tee and workout pants in place of her climbing gear.

She turned back to me with a fresh, easy smile.

"Floors like this barely exist. No enemies, and the ocean after all this time. What's the harm in resting for a bit?"

She made a small gesture toward the sand, and in an instant a beach chair rose out of it. For something conjured from sand, it was a remarkably convincing sun lounger.

Heijeong strode over, settled herself onto it, and glanced back at me.

"What are you doing? Ditch the armor and get over here. Let's rest by the ocean for an hour."

It was the first time inside an actual floor that things had felt this leisurely, and it threw me off a little.

Hmm…

Still, Heijeong was a regressor, and we had the fairy's enormous luck besides — it couldn't hurt.

I set down the axe in my hand.