Tower - Escort (5)
I stared at the second wave of over a hundred harpies swarming across the sky and thought to myself, These flying bastards are way too annoying.
If we kept crawling along in this slow-as-hell carriage while fighting off endless waves of harpies, we’d never make it to the city alive. I might survive, but no matter how hard I fought, at least one of the others would die for sure.
According to the map, we still had about two hours left by carriage. Since the wagon was heavily loaded and moving at roughly seven to eight kilometers per hour, the remaining distance was at most fifteen kilometers.
“Man… I used to be a total scrub soldier.”
Back in the military, my best time for a three-kilometer run had been fourteen minutes and fifty-one seconds. Most of my physical evaluations hovered around fifteen minutes and two or three seconds. I never imagined I’d one day think of myself as someone who could run like this.
I climbed onto the roof of the cargo wagon and picked up the bag containing the Monster Growth Elixirs. The case was plastered with layers of sealing talismans and felt quite heavy—at least three kilograms. Since I couldn’t store it in my inventory, I had no choice but to carry it myself.
“W-wait a second! What are you planning to do?!”
Lorolen asked in a panic.
“The monsters are only swarming because of this thing anyway. If we just deliver it, you won’t go bankrupt. That’s what you wanted, right?”
Everyone stared at me in shock.
“See you all in the city.”
“Wait, oppa!”
Ignoring Lee Suyoung’s desperate call, I sprinted toward the city with everything I had. This was the best option. If we stayed like this, we’d lose the cargo anyway. So wasn’t it smarter to choose the path that had a chance of success and where no one had to die?
Even if the quest failed, even if my avatar died dozens of times, I was the only one who wouldn’t truly die. If I faced the monsters alone, there would be no casualties.
I hadn’t learned any proper lightness techniques, but by reinforcing my leg muscles, heart, and lungs with internal energy, I could maintain a marathon-runner pace of about twenty-five kilometers per hour. In short bursts I could probably hit thirty-five or even forty, but I wouldn’t last long at that speed. By my rough calculations, I only needed to sprint at full power for about thirty-five minutes.
Tsk, I’m probably going to run out of internal energy. If I did, I’d just have to chug a mana recovery potion and keep running.
As I dashed forward, the flock of harpies that had been heading for the carriage seemed to sense something was off. They hesitated for a moment, then turned and began flying straight toward me. Still, since I was running at full speed, they couldn’t catch up right away.
A horde of goblins that had caught the scent of the elixir swarmed in front of me. I leaped high, clearing their heads entirely, and kept running without slowing down. The goblins naturally chased after me, but their short, slow legs had no hope of catching up.
As the goblins fell behind, an unexpectedly positive side effect appeared. Even though the goblins couldn’t possibly catch me, the harpies—who saw them as rivals—split their forces. A portion of the flock broke off to attack the goblins.
Flying goblins versus ground-crawling goblins. Obviously the ground ones stood no chance. If I didn’t have to run for my life, it would’ve been an entertaining show worth watching from hiding. A little disappointing, really.
I ran for about fifteen minutes and encountered two more monster groups. Just like with the goblins, I ignored them and kept running. Among those monsters were some pretty fast gnolls, but they got caught up in the harpies’ rival-elimination frenzy and ended up fighting them instead.
After running another five minutes, the harpies in the sky finally caught up.
“Tsk. Nothing’s ever easy.”
Still, because they’d been fighting the monster packs I’d left behind, their numbers had decreased quite a bit. Many of the remaining harpies were exhausted or injured.
“Guess I can still handle this.”
I stopped running, set the bag containing the elixir on the ground, and used earth magic to bury it deep underground. Then I bought a low-grade mana recovery potion with my points and chugged it.
“Come on, you flying goblin bastards!”
The harpy flock seemed to understand my words. They all swooped toward me at once. Five or six of them dove like they were conducting an assault, slashing with the blade-like talons on their feet.
I blocked two harpies coming from the left with the gauntlet on my left arm, then sliced through the two flying straight at my center. But I couldn’t dodge the one that came from behind—it slashed across my back.
“Ugh, this is supposed to be a blade-resistant combat suit!”
To be precise, it was a combat uniform sold in the 50th-century Galactic Murim that offered both bullet and blade resistance. I spun around quickly and cut down the two harpies that had struck my back in one swift motion.
There was no wound on my back, but the suit had been sliced open. It wouldn’t lose its defensive properties immediately, but if it kept taking hits like this, it would eventually become no better than ordinary clothing.
But that didn’t matter. Even if my entire body was shredded to pieces, even if I died at the end of it all, as long as I killed every last one of these enemies, it was my victory.
The harpies attacked in coordinated groups of five or six. I used footwork to dodge and slash, cutting down three or four of them with every exchange. I was cut, I cut them, I was cut again, and I cut again.
Before long, my combat suit had completely lost its functions and was nothing more than tattered rags. My whole body was soaked in what could have been harpy blood or my own. A pile of harpy corpses had formed on the ground.
My face was so covered in blood it looked like I’d washed with it. I wiped it away with my left hand. My cheek stung badly—apparently I’d been cut there at some point. But thanks to the surge of adrenaline, I fell into a trance-like state and kept swinging my sword.
Roughly seventy harpies had reached me after dealing with the monster packs that had been chasing me. Now, only about twenty remained in the air.
I staggered while swinging my sword. I’d lost too much blood. My vision was blurring. I could feel death creeping closer.
It felt like I’d been fighting for a long time, but when I glanced at the digital military watch on my wrist, I saw that only a little over ten minutes had passed.
The large harpy that had been watching from behind—clearly the leader—must have thought I was on the verge of death, because it finally stepped forward. It was two and a half times bigger than a normal harpy, which was already a head taller than a goblin.
“Ptui! So you only come out when the prey’s half-dead, huh? Bring it on, you bird-brained piece of shit.”
I spat out the blood that had filled my mouth and taunted it.
Whether my provocation worked or not, the harpy let out a piercing “Kiiiiii—!” and flew straight at me. Even though it was larger and the leader of the flock, its attack pattern wasn’t much different from the others. After ten minutes of fighting, I was already sickeningly familiar with it.
I grinned, absorbed my avatar, and regenerated it on the spot.
My combat suit was still drenched in blood and torn to shreds, but my newly regenerated body was back in perfect condition. I dodged the leader harpy’s bladed kick and poured all my strength into a slash that cut its chest diagonally in half.
“Hmm?”
A tingling sensation lingered in my hand. Was the cutting feel better than usual? Or was it just an adrenaline-fueled illusion?
A blue mana stone sparkled inside the corpse of the leader harpy, whose chest had been sliced open on a diagonal.
“No ability stone, huh.”
Well, even though I didn’t know the exact odds, I’d already gotten an ability stone on the thirteenth floor. Expecting another one here would be greedy. Still, I thought a boss-type monster might have had a chance.
Regardless of my disappointment, the moment their leader fell, the remaining harpies panicked and scattered away from me.
Was it over already? If things were going to end this easily, maybe I should’ve just stayed with the carriage and fought together. Did I overdo it for nothing?
The moment that thought crossed my mind, I spotted a third wave of harpies flying in from the direction the others had fled. They looked like tiny dots in the far distance.
“God damn it! Of course!”
I started running toward the city again before the new flock could reach me. It seemed the leader I’d killed had only been the flock leader, not the tribe chief. If I could at least make it to the city gates, even these stupid harpies probably wouldn’t follow me inside.
The distance was huge, so reaching the city before that new wave arrived shouldn’t be too difficult.
I wondered how far behind my party was. The carriage would still carry some of the scent, so they probably wouldn’t avoid monster encounters entirely.
I used water magic to quickly harvest only the mana stones from the harpies, dug up the bag I’d buried with earth magic, and ran toward the city once more.
After running for another ten minutes or so, I could faintly see the city beyond the mountains. Just as I’d predicted, the harpies that had closed the distance stopped advancing once I got close to the city. They must have learned their lesson from the city’s regular extermination patrols.
With the harpies gone, I could see a line of people waiting to enter through the city gates. According to Lorolen’s map, this city was a gateway across the mountain range. On the opposite side of the path I’d taken was a wide-open plain.
The guards at the gate spotted me slowly walking toward them covered in blood and immediately leveled their spears at me.
“Halt! Who goes there!”
I raised both hands and answered.
“I’m a climber! I won’t enter the city yet—I’ll wait here for my party!”
At the word “climber,” not only the guards but everyone standing in line turned to stare at me.
“A climber?”
“My party should arrive in about an hour. They’re coming through that mountain canyon, so it’s been rough. Mind if I sit here and rest for a bit?”
Without waiting for an answer, I sat down at the edge of the suspension bridge to rest. Even though I’d regenerated my avatar, running that hard was still exhausting.
One of the people waiting in line looked at me with interest and asked,
“Are you really a climber? You’re saying you came through that canyon that’s currently off-limits?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
I answered half-heartedly, too tired to say more. I took out a water bottle from my inventory, drank deeply, and used the laundry magic tool I’d received today to wash off the blood.
This thing is more convenient than I expected.
The moment I suddenly became clean and started pulling items out of thin air, everyone around me freaked out and began exclaiming that I really was a climber.
After waiting a while longer, I finally spotted the familiar cargo wagon in the distance. It had arrived fifteen minutes earlier than I’d expected, which told me just how hard they’d pushed the horses.
“Oppa! Are you okay?! Oh my god! Are all these cuts on you? You’ve been slashed to pieces!”
Lee Suyoung, who ran up to me first, examined my body and teared up.
“Ah, only the clothes got cut. I healed all the wounds with potions while I was waiting.”
William and Le Thi Hoa, who had run up right behind her, also looked at me with concern.
“Han Jiwoo! That was far too reckless! No matter how dangerous the situation was, how could you treat your own life so lightly!”
“He’s right. That was incredibly reckless.”
Instead of asking about the quest, both William and Le Thi Hoa scolded me for my solo action, clearly more worried about my safety. On the community forums, climbers were constantly badmouthed as scammers and treated with nothing but hatred, but it seemed I’d been lucky enough to meet genuinely good people.
“Haha, sorry. I was a bit hasty back then too.”
William explained what they’d done after I left. He had stopped Suyoung from following me, left Lorolen—who was essentially the client—in the care of Suyoung and Le Thi Hoa, and tried to run after me to provide support. But he simply couldn’t match my speed. After seeing the piles of dead monsters along the path, he had apparently been very worried about what kind of fight I’d gotten into.
Most of those monsters had actually been taken out by the harpies, though.
“The cargo! Is the cargo safe?!”
Lorolen, who had finally climbed down from the wagon and came waddling over late, received icy glares from everyone. I flinched slightly, then handed him the bag that was still covered in dirt and blood.
“The cargo is safe.”
“Ooooh! Thank you! Thank you so much! You are all truly my saviors!”
Every time Lorolen spoke, I unconsciously glanced at Le Thi Hoa. She nodded, confirming he was telling the truth.
Yeah. If he’s a decent human being, he should be grateful.
“Alright, then let’s head back to the tenth floor.”
The sun was already setting. Maybe because we’d climbed three floors, even doing breathing exercises didn’t seem like it would easily shake off the fatigue.
“It’s too bad we met such good people. It would’ve been nice if we could form a party together.”
At my words, William smiled gently and replied,
“They say that people you meet while climbing the tenth-floor range usually end up in the same city on the twentieth floor. So let’s think about partying after we reach the twentieth floor. And if the timing works out, we might run into each other again while climbing.”
“Then I hope we meet again.”
Everyone nodded. Even though our meeting had been short, parting was still bittersweet.
We used one of the Community features to register each other as friends. Once added, we could send private messages or invite each other to group chats anytime.
“Ah, just in case, here’s my contact information outside the Tower. I will never forget your dedication, Han Jiwoo.”
“Me too.”
Before returning to the tenth floor, William and Le Thi Hoa wrote down their email addresses for me and Suyoung. Since we were from different countries, email was more convenient than phone numbers.
Suyoung and I exchanged emails as well.
After that, we immediately returned to the tenth floor.
(To be continued in the next chapter)