The Liberator's Reward

◈ Floor 4, Waiting Room. ◈

Something hot surged up from deep ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠inside my chest.

No, wait. Why? Where is he going? Why is Dobby following him?

...Am I screwed? I've got a bad feeling about this.

Being a Liberator surely doesn't mean I'm the sacrifice that buys the orc's freedom... right?

Damn it.

My thoughts ran wild, but my body was already straining with everything it had to hold the boulder up. Now that I was actually supporting it, I realized that letting go and diving into the side passage was impossible — the moment I released my hands, this rock would come crashing down on me before I could even flinch.

An unfathomable power was lodged in that boulder. How long had Faraktus been holding it up?

...He'll come back, right? No — he has to come back. Shit. Will he come back?

This boulder was, without a doubt, a curse. If I'd been the one bearing it like Faraktus, I would never have returned either.

Forty-two minutes left. If it was true that Faraktus would return, the distance was close enough for me to make the trip and come back.

Damn it all. If I'd known this would happen, I would've taken the right-hand path myself. Why did I have to trust my gut and get myself into this mess?

It had been less than five minutes since I'd started holding the rock, and I was already regretting it. Doubt began to gnaw at my faith in my own instincts. Had my gut actually been right even once since I entered this Tower?

Not counting fights, I didn't think so. Saving Dobby had been compassion more than instinct, and at the fork on Floor 2 I'd leaned on Dobby's judgment instead of my own.

If my instincts are wrong this time...

I swore I would never, ever trust them again. I meant it with everything I had. Whether I'd still be alive to keep that oath, though —

Twenty minutes that tested the limits of my body. If hell existed, wouldn't it look something like this?

Just as I was entertaining such stupid thoughts, footsteps began to sound from the opposite passage. Two sets of them — unmistakably.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Faraktus! Dobby! You came! I barely held back the joy threatening to burst out of me.

Damn it. I knew it. My gut had been right.

I reflected on the me of twenty minutes ago who'd doubted it. Turns out I had pretty good instincts too — just like Dobby.

"You've endured well, Liberator."

Faraktus's voice was remarkably clear. Whether he'd found water and food down the other passage or not, it was no longer the rough, parched rasp it had been before.

"Kkiik! Human! You endured well!"

Dobby chimed in after him. Little punk — he'd kept his mouth clamped shut earlier, and now he pipes up? What exactly did you two get up to while I was suffering?

"I have done nothing but bear the yoke of life. Thanks to you, I can now push that yoke aside."

Faraktus muttered these cryptic words as he came around behind me.

Was the 'yoke of life' this boulder? It had to be. Faraktus's voice brimmed with hope.

"You deserve a proper reward."

His rough hand reached over my head. Something slid down along my hair and came to rest around my neck.

Had he just put a necklace on me?

Something about this feels...

...not great. A muscle-bound orc towering over two meters, fastening a necklace on me from behind. Faraktus's calloused fingers brushed past my throat as he drew them away.

Ugh, damn. A strange, deeply unpleasant feeling.

"Thank you, Liberator."

Faraktus stepped up beside me and took hold of the boulder. The weight pressing me back began to ebb, little by little.

"It is... all right... now. You... may let... go."

The moment I released my hands, an intoxicating sense of liberation spread from my fingertips through my whole body.

Ah — that was brutal.

I rolled my stiff shoulder once, and an unfamiliar sensation registered at my throat. Oh, right. I'd been given a necklace.

A tiny deep-green gem dangling from a thin silver thread glittered beautifully. For something so striking to look at, the description was surprisingly sparse.

That phrase from the notification window — 'a mysterious power' — nagged at me. It was just like with Dobby. I couldn't tell what it was now, but something was clearly hidden inside this necklace too.

I'd find out someday, I supposed.

Either way, it was a huge haul. Climbing the Tower meant combat every single time, and just having it raise the levels of Unyielding and Battle Focus was enough to satisfy me for now.

Someday, the day would come when I learned the power sealed within this necklace. And I was certain that power would serve me well.

I turned my gaze to Faraktus, still supporting the boulder.

"Thank you."

"It is... nothing. Merely... repaying... a kindness."

His voice didn't tremble like it had before. Had the short rest done that much?

Then something glinting on his finger caught my eye.

A golden ring.

Had Faraktus gone down the other passage to retrieve that ring?

As I was studying it, I noticed the boulder shifting — minutely.

...Huh? What the—

It wasn't pushing toward me. Faraktus was pushing the boulder.

"...You just moved it, didn't you?"

No answer came this time either. Instead, the notification window refreshed.

A faint smile crossed Faraktus's lips.

Right before the transfer to the Waiting Room, a sudden thought flickered through my mind — I wanted to help Faraktus, even a little.

I scrambled over and laid my hands on the boulder. As I added my weight, the weight the boulder bore grew in kind. But it was different from before. I could feel it — the boulder was moving, very, very slightly.

It had been a short stretch, but twenty minutes I'd wanted to die from. Unlike those earlier twenty minutes, though, I found a strange exhilaration in the act of pushing the boulder.

A crushed, half-invisible notification message. What was that supposed to be? Had it come from pushing the boulder?

While I was still puzzling over it, Faraktus spoke.

"Thank you, Liberator. One day, I shall repay you. Live until then."

Before I could even answer, my vision brightened and the familiar sensation of weightlessness came to claim me.

Before my eyes could even adjust to the familiar white room of the Waiting Room, my vision flooded with notifications from the Divine Seats.

The notifications piled up so thick I couldn't see a hand in front of my face. Just as I'd done in the Waiting Room after conquering Floor 1, I thought, 'Don't want to see it' — and the windows vanished in an instant.

The white room, the small bed and table greeted me.

Rest time had been cut short. I remembered it being twelve hours after Floor 1. A sign I was expected to adapt faster, I guessed.

"Kkiik! Human! Water!"

"Hold on! Me first. Dobby, even water has a proper order to it."

I pushed Dobby away from the table, claimed the bottle, and gulped it down. Watching the water level plummet, Dobby fixed me with the most pitiful look imaginable.

Hmm, poor guy. Well, I'd wet my throat enough by now.

"Aigh, here."

"Kkiik! Water!"

Dobby hastily snatched the bottle and brought it to his mouth. At least my earlier training had paid off — he drank without letting his lips touch the rim.

Come to think of it, they'd said I could use the Climber Leaderboard and the Community now.

"Leaderboard."

The moment the word left my mouth, a translucent window rose before my eyes.

"No."

I let out a sigh of relief as I looked over the leaderboard.

Ha Heijeong was alive. I'd assumed a regressor would naturally survive, but seeing it with my own eyes was a different matter entirely.

That aside, though...

4th place had 802 points? What? A gap of more than 43,000 points between us. Were hidden missions really worth that much? No — no matter how hidden they were, a gap like that made no sense.

Besides, Floor 5?

Why was everyone else already on Floor 5? Had I fallen behind grinding out hidden missions? No. Dobby, Karakshi, Faraktus — I hadn't lost that much time anywhere. If anything, I'd skipped Floor 3.

"Community."

I had no idea. Maybe the Community would tell me something.

The leaderboard vanished, and the notification window refreshed.

An orc warrior on Floor 4? Meanwhile I got an Orc Great Warrior on Floor 2? Had to be a troll post. It was almost funny.

Just as I reached to click the thread out of curiosity, a small notification popped up with a cheerful ding!

"Yes."

The tutorial gets harder without a status window?

Then had I been climbing through an entirely different tutorial, all by myself, this whole time?

So even Ha Heijeong had given up on Floor 1.

Which meant the orc warrior on Floor 4 was really, truly a thing.

Ugh... it felt like I'd been blindsided — my brain simply wouldn't turn over.

This is such a rip-off!

It genuinely was. If an orc warrior came out on Floor 4, then what came out on Floor 3 — goblins? Then what the hell was on Floors 1 and 2? Wild dogs?

While everyone else strolled up the Tower, it felt like I alone had clawed my way up half dead.

Whew. No. Think about it differently. Ha Heijeong had said that taking the status window would make the regression meaningless.

I was Earth's hope. Mmm. Heroes are lonely by nature. Yep.

Just as I was busy consoling myself like this, a message arrived from Ha Heijeong.