Tower - Silver Divinity (2)
The place where Lee Suyoung's voice came from was occupied by three slimes grunting and straining as they pushed against a rather thick, heavy stone slab. I wondered if such small creatures could actually move it, but to my surprise, the massive slab was slowly sliding forward. I realized their strength was far greater than their size suggested. Come to think of it, during the tutorial below the 10th floor, she had mentioned that when she couldn't use her water bombs, her slimes fought by ramming enemies with their bodies.
"Step aside for a moment."
I pulled Lee Suyoung back and channeled my inner qi, shoving the slab with all my might.
Inner Qi Reinforcement
Cu-gu-gu-gu-gung—!
"Whoa!"
"Oppa, you're so strong!"
Diana and Lee Suyoung clapped in amazement at my display of power.
"Hoo... damn, that's heavy."
After pushing the slab far enough for a person to pass through, I realized there must be some kind of mechanism connected to it.
"Ah, so this was a hidden gimmick to open the slab."
Maybe the magic-infused items I'd picked up were actually the keys to opening it? Tsk. Ever since I started learning martial arts, I feel like I've been getting more and more simple-minded. I used to be the type who relied on brains, you know.
When I looked a bit sheepish, Diana smiled and said,
"What's wrong with that? All roads lead to Rome, right? As long as it opens, that's what matters."
"She's right. Finding a way forward is what counts."
I cleared my throat awkwardly and turned to Lee Suyoung.
"It might be a trap, so let's send Bitpung-i in first. If it flashes, we'll be able to see it from here too."
When a slime takes serious damage, it gets unsummoned before dying. After being unsummoned, it can't be resummoned for a while depending on the injury, but that was still better than a person taking the hit themselves to check for traps.
At my instruction, Lee Suyoung nodded and sent out Bitpung-i. After waiting for a few minutes, she spoke up.
"It looks like there aren't any traps."
"Looks like?"
"Ah."
Lee Suyoung covered her mouth in embarrassment before smiling sheepishly.
"Actually, I can share senses with my summons. Sorry I didn't mention it."
"No need to apologize. We've only known each other for three days. It's not like you have to tell me everything."
I had my own secrets too, so it would be strange if she didn't. In fact, hiding things was only natural. But Lee Suyoung must have thought I was scolding her, because she broke out in a cold sweat.
"N-no! I was going to tell you! Really!"
"I said it's fine. There hasn't been any situation where it was necessary until now, so it doesn't matter."
I spoke sincerely, but Lee Suyoung just floundered, not knowing what to do.
"Suyoung, it really seems like Jiwoo isn't bothered at all. Please calm down."
In the end, Diana had to soothe her.
Lee Suyoung kept glancing at me, trying to read my expression. I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.
"It's really okay. I haven't told you everything either, and I don't plan to, so there's no need to feel sorry. Of course, if you had kept quiet in a situation where it was necessary, I would've been angry."
At my words, Lee Suyoung nodded vigorously.
"If there's anything about my ability that's absolutely necessary, I'll tell you right away! I promise!"
"Good. I'll do the same if something comes up."
The day I would need to reveal my ability to create Multidimensional Avatars would probably never come, though.
"Alright, let's head down now."
There might be traps that slimes couldn't trigger, so Diana and I took the lead as we descended the stairs. As we went underground, I sensed a presence not too far away. I gestured for silence, dimmed my flashlight to its lowest setting, and moved toward where the presence was coming from.
I really should've learned stealth techniques.
Peeking into the room where I sensed the presence, I saw about three mole-like monstrous creatures that appeared to have degenerated eyes, all fast asleep. I opened the community and sent Lee Suyoung a private message.
One-on-one chatting was one of the community's basic features. If I knew how to use sound transmission, I would've used that instead, but sound transmission was a technique that required at least the 1st-rate realm. It was said to be even harder than creating sword qi, since the qi carrying the sound waves would disperse in the air if not controlled perfectly.
Lee Suyoung nodded at my instructions, while Diana looked around in confusion, not understanding the situation. Damn, I should've added her as a friend too. After a moment of hesitation, I simply threw the axe.
Thwack!
Thanks to my training in throwing techniques, hitting the head of a sleeping monster was easy. Fortunately, it embedded perfectly in the skull with minimal noise, so the other two showed no signs of waking. I threw additional axes in succession, killing them one by one.
I gestured for them to stay quiet, then waved them over. Once inside the room, I retrieved my hand axes and examined our surroundings.
"What do these monsters even eat? Is there an exit leading outside besides the way we came in?"
To my question, Diana replied in a hushed voice.
"I'm not sure? Given their degenerated eyes, maybe they haven't gone outside for several generations... or even dozens?"
"Then do you think they hunt insects or rats?"
"They might surprisingly be herbivores. Seeing those moss fragments on the floor, isn't that a possibility?"
While Diana and I were discussing, Lee Suyoung spoke up in a slightly frustrated whisper.
"Is this really the time for that kind of discussion? Let's check quickly and move to the next room."
It seemed Lee Suyoung couldn't care less about the ecology of these monsters. But I was genuinely curious. Diana and I looked a bit dejected.
Before moving to the next room, I sent Diana a community friend request and created a group chat that included all three of us.
However, it took about fifteen minutes of struggle to teach Diana how to use the chat function. It seemed the saying that she's weak with new technology was true.
She even knew how to use emoticons.
I minimized the chat window and tucked it into the corner of my vision, then moved toward the next room while muffling my footsteps. Not every room contained those mole monsters. By the time we'd cleared about half of the underground rooms—seven in total—without any resistance, it seemed the smell of blood was starting to wake them up one by one.
While I hid in an empty room with nothing inside, the mole monsters woke up and began emerging from their rooms, spreading out toward the ones that smelled of blood. It was a good thing I'd wiped the blood off my hand axes in advance.
From my hiding spot, I threw a hand axe and killed one of the mole monsters. The creature whose skull had been shattered by the surprise attack died without making a sound. I kept pulling more hand axes from my inventory and throwing them.
The hand axes had naturally accumulated while hunting goblins outside the 10th floor city. They had surprisingly good weight balance and were quite effective. No matter how I thought about it, these axes couldn't have been made by goblins.
Diana seemed puzzled by the size of my inventory. I gave her the same explanation I'd given Lee Suyoung before.
Diana nodded, looking fascinated. Lee Suyoung had seemed a bit suspicious when she first heard it, but did she no longer have any doubts?
As I continued killing them with hand axes, Lee Suyoung also launched Suoktan attacks, smashing the heads of the mole monsters. It seemed she'd leveled up, because the power of her water bombs had surpassed the level of simple stone-throwing. Still, since we couldn't use bright light openly, it took her longer than me to pick them off one by one.
As the mole monsters died in the corridor, even the dull creatures eventually noticed something was wrong. However, with their degenerated eyes, they couldn't easily locate us. The sounds of other mole monsters scurrying about made it hard to pinpoint us by hearing, and the overwhelming smell of blood everywhere made it difficult to track us by scent.
But as corpses piled up, it became harder for us to keep attacking from a distance. The mole monsters, now frenzied by the blood, began growling as they searched for us. Since the second floor underground wasn't that spacious, our position was soon discovered.
"Block the door!"
Since we'd already been found, there was no need to stay quiet anymore. I shouted while shining my flashlight directly into the monsters' eyes. As the mole creatures flinched from the intense light, Diana and I blocked the doorway and swung our sword and mace.
While the two of us held the entrance, Lee Suyoung lifted Mulpung-i and attacked from above with Suoktan. After swinging my sword a few times, we were able to quickly eliminate all the underground mole monsters.
"We got lucky. If they hadn't been sleeping, it wouldn't have ended this easily."
The mole monsters' hides were thicker and tougher than expected, so I had to reinforce my sword or axe with inner qi to cut them properly. For monsters like these, blunt weapons like maces were actually more effective than bladed ones.
"In my opinion, if we had opened the slab normally from above, they probably wouldn't have woken up. Even if they're herbivores, with their size, food would be scarce. The best way to reduce food consumption would be sleeping. The creator of this ruin must have designed it that way on purpose."
I see. So the mole monsters sleeping wasn't luck, but inevitability? It was true that animals that hibernated or slept for long periods were common. In that case, their sleep cycle must be tied to the growth cycle of the moss. I nodded at Diana's speculation.
"Or it might be designed to wake them when the slab is fully opened, not just when it's being opened."
When I pushed the slab with brute force, I'd only opened it enough for a person to barely squeeze through. Honestly, it wasn't made to be opened with strength.
"Indeed! So it was like an alarm system? Should we go back up and try it once?"
"Shall we?"
At our discussion, Lee Suyoung looked at us with narrowed eyes.
"What do you mean, 'shall we?' Did we come here to play? Is this some kind of curiosity playground?"
At Lee Suyoung's pointed remark, Diana and I looked slightly downcast. She was right. We had come to climb the tower, not to satisfy our curiosity. Above all, we couldn't risk danger just to indulge our curiosity.
Since we hadn't found the crystal that would lead to the next floor down here either, there might be a door leading even further down. So it was better to avoid anything that could cause unnecessary noise.
Still... it was a bit of a shame.
"It's still a little disappointing. We've finally reached a floor that actually feels like an adventure."
It seemed Diana felt the same way.
"You can satisfy that adventurous spirit later. Safety comes before dangerous curiosity."
Lee Suyoung stated the correct principle firmly and directed us to search the underground area. For some reason, when she looked at me, it felt like her respect had dropped by about five points compared to usual. Must be my imagination, right?
During the search, we found another stone slab identical to the one we'd seen above. Looking at it, I finally understood how Lee Suyoung had known there was a space behind it. Air was flowing through the gaps in the slab, creating a faint sound.
"Should I push it open with force again?"
At my question, Lee Suyoung nodded.
"You said fully opening it might trigger a trap. So we should open it with force. Safety first."
I reinforced my entire body with inner qi and pushed the slab.
(To be continued in the next chapter)