Floor 21: The Only Path (2)

I hadn't walked far before the alien soldiers revealed themselves again. They marched in disciplined ranks, every single one of them armed with spear and shield. The atmosphere was strikingly different from the haphazardly equipped soldiers I'd faced earlier — their footsteps, too, fell in standardized rhythm, like men who'd received professional training. They were even visibly larger than the previous batch, despite being the same species. It could simply have been that stronger foes appeared as time went on, but my gut told me something else: they were showing up stronger because I was getting closer to the end of the path.

"Dobby, fall back. Unless you want to die."

"Kkiik! Got it! Suyeok, fighting!"

Well, I'd been fishing for a 'thank you,' to be honest. It was the little game Heejung and I always played — though Dobby obviously didn't get it. Then I activated the Shadow Monarch skill again and began carving through the road. With every enemy armed to the teeth with shields and spears, things were a shade trickier than before, but nothing I couldn't handle.

By this point, I was genuinely starting to wonder what was waiting at the end of the path. Where in the world was an army of this size even coming from? It was composed of at least five different species, no less. Then, after pushing forward another thirty minutes or so, I reached the end of Floor 21: The Only Path.

What the...?

The passage ended in a dead end. Set into the wall was a circular portal over four meters in diameter — and through that portal, alien soldiers were pouring out. So that's where the enemies were coming from. They'd been entering the Tower through this portal all along. The ones coming out now were just the vanguard of the next wave.

"A human! Kill it!"

The soldiers of the lead group charged the moment they saw me. Before they could fan out and form their formation, I had to cut these ones down and seal the portal. I sprinted ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠forward and swung my axe with everything I had. The full-force blow crumpled a shield ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and bit deep into an orc's shoulder, and the lightning that followed coiled around the remaining soldiers like a chain.

Immediately after, I conjured a cluster of shadow spears in front of the portal — angled so that anything stepping through would be impaled on the spot. I set them to flex and yield on impact, laying their victims gently onto the ground. But as I drew near the portal, no more enemies appeared. Instead, a notification window rose before me.

Huh? An optional hidden mission, out of nowhere? This was the same setup as when I'd met Faraktus. If it was optional, then...

Just like on Floor 2, I stood at another fork in the road. Play it safe and move on to Floor 22 — or take the risk and complete the optional hidden mission.

But my answer was already decided. I'd cleared Floor 21 without breaking much of a sweat. An optional hidden mission, then. The necklace Faraktus had given me had turned out to be quite the prize — the achievement points too, for that matter. I was going to clear the hidden mission.

Just as I steeled myself and studied the portal calmly, the Mimicry skill abruptly surfaced in my mind. Could I possibly mimic this portal? It was a thought closer to pure instinct than reasoning. It had been a while since the Mimicry skill had crossed my mind — I hadn't needed it lately, and it had simply slipped my notice. But if my instinct had fired, I had to act on it, no questions asked.

Keeping my eyes on the portal, I channeled my mana and invoked Mimicry. A notification window popped up at once.

Wait — it gets deleted? I hastily pulled up my status window to check, and sure enough, where Mimicry had been, a new skill called Two-Way Portal now sat. Ah. So it was a one-time use thing.

Well, that made sense. A skill that could copy anything and everything would be flat-out broken — there was no way Heejung wouldn't have said something if it worked that way. Come to think of it, I'd meant to test it with Dobby's healing spell a while back...

"Whew—"

A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sigh of relief escaped me before I knew it. Dobby had been asleep back then, so I'd put it off for another chance and forgotten all about it. If I'd carelessly tested it on some random skill, it could have been a disaster — I'd have effectively thrown a skill away.

Still, Two-Way Portal, huh. Is that a good thing? I had no way of knowing. No way of knowing whether I could even use it inside the Tower, either. It wasn't as if I could leap between floors with it... I'd think about that later. Time was running short.

Steadying my breath, I watched the countdown on the notification window tick away. Soon, a new window appeared.

The moment that dry, mechanical voice finished speaking, I moved toward the portal.

"Dobby."

"Kkiik!"

Dobby scrambled to keep up behind me. The instant I crossed the threshold of the portal, my vision brightened and a faint sensation of weightlessness washed over me. But I didn't let my guard down — every nerve in my body went taut. Those alien soldiers had been ambushed the moment they stepped through a portal too. No rule says the same can't happen to me. I had to be ready to plant my feet and charge at a moment's notice.

Amid that faint floating sensation, I sheathed my whole body in lightning.

Through my brightening vision, the first thing to register was a lead-gray sky. Beneath it loomed an enormous building ringed by walls like a fortress rampart, and directly in front of me...

"Kyaaak! An intruder!"

"Kill the intruder! Kar-lein is with us!"

An alien army numbering at least ten thousand stood waiting for me, weapons drawn.

"...Damn it."

"Kkiik! Suyeok!"

A curse slipped out of me on reflex, and Dobby's shrill shriek rose from behind. The portal had been spitting out five hundred soldiers at regular intervals, so I'd figured two or three thousand at most. I hadn't expected this many. Well, if I took my time, I could grind them all down eventually, but...

Behind the ranks of soldiers, strangely shaped colossal buildings caught my eye — structures that looked like a castle and a factory fused into one. If ten thousand of them were stationed outside, there had to be far more within those walls. Even if I could take them all, that would be way too idiotic a way to do it.

First things first: I draped a Shadow Veil over both Dobby's body and my own. The enemies panicked at our vanishing act right before their eyes.

"The human! Where'd it go!"

"Find it!"

"Find the intruder! Aim for where it was standing!"

A hail of arrows came pouring down on my position, and I hurriedly scooped up Dobby and shifted sideways. This much concealment should keep them off my trail, at least for now. So what do I do now?

Come to think of it, no Tower message had appeared to brief me on the mission. Every time I entered a floor, a notification window popped up right away — hidden missions included. This made no sense to me.

"Dobby, no notification window is showing up. Any idea why?"

"Kkiik! Dunno! But this place is not the Tower of Trials!"

"What?"

"Kkiik! I don't really know! But my connection to God is stronger than before!"

I pressed him for more, but Dobby was just as much in the dark as I was. No messages because this wasn't the Tower of Trials? I opened my status window just in case — it wouldn't turn on either. None of this added up. They'd clearly called it an optional hidden mission. If it was a trial handed down by the Tower, why was I outside the Tower entirely?

Either way, the one thing I know for sure is that this place lies beyond the Tower of Trials. And what else? I recalled the Tower's message I'd seen before coming here. Colonized Planet — a world held in collateral. Paired with the alien army in front of me, a hypothesis took shape in my head.

This world became a colony of another world. That would explain why so many different species had been gathered into a single army. A colonized planet — something told me there wasn't just one of them, either. Were they collecting aliens from other worlds through portals and forging them into soldiers here?

Granted, the way they attacked me screaming a god's name makes me a little doubtful... But if you assumed they'd undergone something like brainwashing, it fit. That was the best hypothesis I could squeeze out of the current situation.

So — what was I supposed to do here? Given that I appeared in front of an army, and what looks like a factory-fortress... A factory in castle form. The perfect place to manufacture soldiers. I suspected I needed to destroy that building. And if not the fortress itself, then the clue to the hidden mission was definitely inside those walls. Failing that, there'd be nothing worth doing at all — they wouldn't have named the mission 'Colonized Planet' if the answer were simply to butcher a five-digit alien army.

Thank god for the Shadow Monarch skill. I could slip inside the fortress without being spotted, at least. The rest I could figure out from there. Leaving the alien soldiers still hunting for us behind, I headed for the fortress.

"The intruder is gone! Reinforce the watch!"

"It can turn invisible! Report anything, no matter how trivial!"

The fortress gate was sealed shut. From the wall above, I could hear the soldiers shouting. Judging by all that racket, they had no intention of opening the gate anytime soon — not until they were sure I was gone. Hm. Guess I'm climbing the wall, then.

Thankfully, the wall wasn't so tall as to be unscalable — about the height of a seven-story apartment building. If I planted my feet against it and used Kashatoom's Shoes of the Sky God, I could make it up. As quietly as possible, though.

Right now they were searching for me outside the walls, but if they caught even a whiff of movement, the whole fortress would erupt. It would be a question of when, not if — but there was still a world of difference between the enemy knowing I was inside and not knowing.

I gathered Dobby back into my arms.

"Dobby, quiet this time, okay?"

"Kkiik. Okay."

Sensing the gravity of things, Dobby answered in a whisper. I backed up a short distance to build a running start, then channeled Step of Lightning and dashed at the fortress wall.

Five strides up the face of the wall, and my foot planted on empty air. It was my first time attempting this, and keeping my balance was anything but easy — my upper body pitched backward, and I stepped onto nothing to right myself again. Three more strides after that, and I was atop the wall.

"Eyes on the base of the wall! It might climb over!"

Beyond the aliens scrambling and shouting below, four buildings stood out from the rest by sheer size — aged, weathered structures, all of them. The one at the center was the largest, with three others arranged around it. Two of them particularly drew my eye: the central building, and one behind it.

From the central building, factory smokestacks belched smog in relentless bursts. The building behind it looked especially dilapidated on the outside — something like a colossal domed stadium, though at a glance it could easily pass for an old warehouse.

Now that I was actually inside the fortress, with no message to guide me, I had no bearings at all. So — out of four buildings, where was I headed?