Floor 35, Furnace Terror (2)

The moment the thought formed, I pushed myself upright into a sitting position.

Dobby, sprawled beside me, scrambled to sit up as well, but I stretched out an arm to stop him. There was no need for him to get up too.

"No, stay lying down."

"Okay!"

Leaving Dobby to settle back into the grass, I sank into thought once more.

The reason I'd assumed Heijeong and I couldn't mediate the war was simple.

First, the emotional rift between elves and humans ran deeper than anyone could imagine. Second, the trial was starting amid an act of terror, and there was no way the two of us alone could stem the conflict between the races on this planet.

The fact that almost no climber had chosen neutrality said the same thing.

But both the Elf Union and the human faction have leaders.

When it came down to it, the decision-making power rested with the heads of each side. If I could get to those leaders, a thread of a solution might reveal itself.

Hmm...

What if I seized the leaders of both factions by overwhelming force and forced them to the negotiating table? Wouldn't that be enough to make something work?

Of course, it looked impossible.

Neutral climbers received massive rewards if they succeeded, precisely because the difficulty was so punishing.

Heijeong had surely considered it too. But given her circumstances—

She knows the future. All she has to do is pick the human faction, so she probably never agonized over something that was next to impossible.

Turning it over slowly, though, I realized it wasn't entirely hopeless.

Step one: capture the head of the Elf Union. Then round up the human kings and drag them into a forced negotiation.

Even as I thought it, I wanted to laugh at myself. But I couldn't just give up here.

Capturing the leader of the Elf Union would be the tricky part... but the opportunity was there. All I had to do was seize it.

Not now, though.

There was nothing I could do about the 35th-floor trial at this very moment.

Dozens of furnaces were scattered across the human kingdoms. The climbers of each faction would be randomly assigned to those furnaces, tasked with either pulling off the terror or stopping it.

Only after the attacks would the kings gather for all-out war, and the elves would rally their forces.

Heijeong will be busy fending off the terrors for now anyway...

I lowered my body back onto the grass. Time to flesh out the plan ahead.

Even so, once my thoughts were organized, I felt strangely lighter. Whatever came of it, I had something to do now. And along with it, an unfounded confidence had taken root.

Maybe I can actually pull this off.

I'd done well so far. I'd accomplished things even Heijeong hadn't anticipated. That was all this required of me too.

Did she say the furnace terror trial takes about thirty minutes?

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

In the distance, a glowing city came into view. The climbers who'd chosen the human faction were probably in absolute chaos right about now—elves attacking from the sky via airships and from the ground in vehicles. With no telling which came first, they'd have to hold both fronts.

Well, as a neutral, it was none of my business.

"Dobby, want something to eat?"

"Is Suyeok hungry?"

"No, it's just—there's nothing to do, so might as well keep our strength up, that's all."

"Then yes! I want steak!"

"Steak? Figured you'd say that, so I stocked up this time."

I pulled a steak out of the mimic and handed it over. Now, what should I have?

I was still deliberating when—whum—a faint tremor rolled through the ground beneath me. At the same instant, a pillar of fire shot up on the far side of the sky.

Huh? Already?

It hadn't even been that long since the 35th floor began.

Someone, somewhere, had failed to defend their furnace. That was a little unusual. Sure, I'd spent a long time thinking, but less than ten minutes could have passed.

Were there more climbers who'd chosen the elf faction than expected?

Impossible to know. More than that, the soaring pillar of fire had my attention.

Wait, a pillar of fire that tall, and the landscape's completely untouched?

When Heijeong had told me about it, I'd just nodded along. Seeing it with my own eyes, I couldn't make sense of it.

Hmm, watching closely, there was something strange. The pillar of fire stretched in a perfectly straight line, linking sky and earth—and it didn't spread anywhere else.

Heijeong had said you had thirty minutes after the pillar appeared to evacuate the city. A city built up through the Divine Furnace would vanish, swallowed whole.

So it just... stands there until the fire devours the city and everything disappears?

As a bystander watching from the outside, that was all I could think. I could only hope the climbers got out in time.

Anyway. Shrimp fried rice it is.

While I ate, more pillars of fire rose across the sky in the distance. It was almost like watching a fireworks display.

Five minutes had passed since the message announcing the end of the 35th floor and the start of the 36th.

The other climbers were probably running themselves ragged right about now. Those who'd failed to stop a terror had to make for another city, while those who'd held their defenses had to rescue the fleeing humans. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠And the elf-faction climbers had to kill as many humans as they possibly could.

Only the climbers suffered, in the end.

My thoughts are more or less sorted. Maybe I should start moving too.

Using the information Heijeong had given me, I worked out the finer points of the plan ahead. Facing it directly, it actually seemed doable.

My first destination was Delail, the central kingdom of the human faction. I didn't know the exact ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠route, but if I headed toward the cities, I'd figure it out. And if I happened across an intact city along the way—well, stealing an airship wouldn't be out of the question.

With things as they were, I sorely missed my magic broom. Being able to fly freely through the sky would have made everything so much easier.

Come to think of it, the neutral climbers don't get gathered together, do they?

There was no way I was the only one among all those climbers to choose neutrality... which meant I finally understood what Heijeong had meant when she called the neutral route impossible to clear. Neutrals couldn't even band together.

Just then, the signal device in my hand chirped.

Click—

One signal. Heijeong's sign that she'd defended her furnace safely. With the furnace held, she'd apparently seized a spare moment to send it.

What should I send back?

We'd only ever agreed on two signals. One for success. Two for failure. Naturally, because I'd planned on choosing the human faction all along.

Uh... for something off-script, would three signals work?

Click— click— click—

After I sent it, no reply came. Heijeong must have been thrown off too.

A moment later, as if she'd figured it out, a single signal came through.

Let's see... I should probably head for Heijeong first.

We'd planned to meet up from the start, and Heijeong would know the way to Delail. Besides, I had to tell her about my situation.

Not that it mattered much—this time, no matter how badly Heijeong wanted to help me, her hands were tied. Helping a neutral like me would cost her a massive penalty.

The signal device pointed to the ten o'clock direction. It couldn't measure distance, so I'd have to move briskly. With bad luck, she could be quite far off.

Hmm, if it took too long, Heijeong might just come find me first...

"Dobby, this could be a long walk, so hand me the sword and shield. I'll stash them in the mimic."

"Thank you, Suyeok!"

It was time to move again.

Had we been walking for four hours or so? The sky was gradually brightening. It was the small hours of the morning, and the wind spilling from the Ring of Dawn wrapped around me with noticeably more force than before.

Thanks to the ring, I wasn't tired in the slightest. Dobby showed no signs of flagging either.

We crossed paths with elves along the road, but they only cast glances our way without harassing us. Heijeong had said that encountering elves while in the human faction meant instant combat... I gathered this was a neutral-faction courtesy.

How can they even tell?

The question nagged at me, but then, it was the Tower's trial. I let it go—there had to be some mechanism for it.

I kept in contact with Heijeong the whole way. Signals kept arriving even though the 36th floor hadn't ended yet.

She seemed to be heading my way without bothering to rescue the humans in the terrorized cities. Probably because of my odd three-signal message—though honestly, it felt like she was worrying too much.

Part of me wanted to tell her to turn back. But by the time I realized Heijeong was already en route, it was too late. She'd been traveling for a while, and knowing her personality, she wouldn't have turned around even if I hadn't sent any signal at all.

Right—better than risking us missing each other.

Click— I answered Heijeong's signal once again. The intervals between her signals were shrinking, which meant she had to be close by.

And no sooner had I thought it than a black dot lifted above the western sky.

Against the pale blue of dawn, it was easy to spot—and the moment I saw it, I knew it was her. Even though she'd come running the instant she received my signal, it had taken her considerable time, which meant the place she'd been summoned to at the start was a fair distance away.

"Suyeok! Something's coming!"

"It's fine, it's Heijeong."

"Eh? Did Heijeong buy a broom?"

"Yeah, apparently just recently."

"Amazing!"

I stood in place, waving, and before long Heijeong drew near. She wasn't wearing a pointed witch's hat or anything, but she flew with such practiced ease that she genuinely looked like a witch of the night.

"Whoa, Ha Heijeong. You look pretty cool up there."

"Heijeong! Good to see you!"

Dobby, transformed as he was, waved enthusiastically—but Heijeong didn't spare him a single glance. His wounded hand churned the empty air.

Instead, Heijeong tossed the broom aside like it was nothing and strode straight up to me.

"Okay, what the hell is this? What happened? Why are you here? What's going on?"

A barrage of questions, one after another. Her brow was furrowed, and she seemed a little angry too.

"Huh? Say something. You suddenly sent three signals—I was worried sick."

"Hold on, let me explain. Slowly."

She'd been talking so fast that her breathing had gone ragged. I rested a hand on her shoulder and gave her a moment to settle.

Soon her breathing steadied. Alright—time to explain the situation.

"I'm in the neutral faction."

"What!? Are you insane?"

Shocked, Heijeong let out another rough gasp. All the calming down I'd just done went straight out the window.

"Wait! It wasn't by choice!"

"...Not by choice? Oh! Was it your gut feeling?"

"No, that's not it..."

I walked her through everything that had happened since entering the 35th floor, starting from the beginning—how something on my personal floor had forced the neutral faction on me.

Heijeong exploded.

"Are those bastards out of their minds? They force you onto a personal floor, don't even ask you anything, and then railroad you into a faction however they please? Unbelievable."

"...Heijeong, breathe."

I'd meant to grumble a little about being annoyed myself, but watching her rage on my behalf killed any appetite for it. First things first—I needed to calm her down before the swearing got completely out of hand.

"It's fine. I'm the one it happened to, so whatever."

"How is it fine? The neutral route pays out big points. You already burned achievement points buying that axe—you needed to make them back here!"

"Well, it's already done."

The usual, level-headed Heijeong was nowhere to be found; there wasn't the slightest sign of her calming down. In moments like this, the best move was a fast change of subject.

"So I've been thinking about how to win as a neutral."

"...Huh? How?"

I laid out the plan I'd drafted earlier, and Heijeong nodded along with a deadly serious face.

"Honestly... it's not without a chance. Coming from you, it might actually work."

"Right? So I'm heading straight for Delail. That's where the kings' council is being held."

"Yeah, that's the smarter play. ...Wait a second. Okay, I heard the story, but—our Dobby got huge?"

"That's right! I've grown!"

Heijeong finally turned her gaze to Dobby. It felt belated to say the least, but Dobby was clearly pleased by the compliment and smiled brightly without a trace of resentment.

Heijeong patted his head. There was barely any height difference now, which made the whole scene a little ridiculous.

"We can catch up on the way. Hop on."

Heijeong lifted the broom. Hmm, I had memories of riding with Erendil... but now there were three of us, Dobby included.

"Can that thing even hold three people?"

"I'd think so?"

Heijeong tilted her head, apparently no more certain than I was. Well, we could cram ourselves on—but that wasn't the only problem. One Heijeong, in her haste, seemed to have overlooked entirely.

"By the way—you do know you take a penalty if you help me, right?"