Tower - Chimera (Part 2)
"What do you think?"
"Give me a moment."
At my question, William pondered for a second before gathering the waiting climbers, deciding it would be best to address everyone at once. As the ten of us formed a large circle, I was able to get a closer look at each of their faces.
There were Koreans, Brits, Americans, Vietnamese, and a Black man who appeared to be from an African nation. It seemed we were drawn from five different regions. Of course, the Black climber could have been American or British—the United States was an obvious candidate, and even the United Kingdom had one of the largest Black populations in Europe. However, I suspected he was from an African country because of a tip I had read on the community boards: climbers from geographically adjacent nations rarely grouped up. Historically, neighboring countries tended to have too many deep-seated conflicts, which inevitably led to friction within a party.
Then again, the US and Korea once fought alongside each other in the Vietnam War, while pointing guns at the Vietnamese... and if we go by historical conflicts, should Great Britain even be allowed to group with anyone?
"First, let me share the information I gathered from the villagers," William began, drawing my attention back to the present.
He proceeded to describe the monster blocking our path. It was a Chimera, possessing the head of a lion, the head of a goat, and a snake for a tail. However, this was no mythical offspring of Typhon and Echidna from Greek mythology; it was a magically synthesized beast born of experimental fusion.
According to the villagers' theories, a Life Magic Tower located far from this region had collapsed during a massive earthquake a few years ago. This Chimera was likely one of the experimental subjects that had escaped during the disaster. The thought of mages creating and researching such monstrosities made me question their bioethics, but since this was an entirely different world, complaining about it wouldn't achieve anything.
"The Chimera's weaknesses are the exact centers of both the lion's forehead and the goat's forehead," William explained.
One of the Vietnamese climbers raised an eyebrow. "Can we actually trust that information?"
In response, William reached into his inventory and pulled out a worn, crude piece of paper.
"A few years ago, the kingdom distributed flyers containing the Chimera's description and weaknesses to help resolve the crisis. This is one of those flyers. Fortunately, the village chief still had it in his possession."
Knowing its weaknesses was a massive advantage, but the real issue was that we still had no idea just how powerful the beast actually was. The villagers had never fought it directly; they were simply paralyzed by fear, fueled by rumors of questionable accuracy. Granted, there had been one attempt to force a way past the Chimera, but the five strong men who tried were instantly turned into monster feed.
This village relied entirely on hunting to survive, but ever since the Chimera had settled in the pass, the local game had been completely wiped out. If left unchecked, the Chimera would likely raid the village and devour everyone long before they could starve to death.
A skinny American youth shifted his weight nervously before raising his hand. "I think our priority should be scouting this Chimera to see what we're actually dealing with."
"That's true," agreed Bogard, who looked like a heavy drinker. "Does anyone here have skills suited for reconnaissance?"
Silence fell over the group. No one wanted to volunteer for such a dangerous task.
Just as I was about to offer my services, William spoke up first.
"Since we're going to be fighting together, we need to share our basic capabilities. We can't have our backliners accidentally stepping into the vanguard, or our frontliners lagging behind."
With those words, William conjured a translucent magic arrow above his palm.
"I specialize in ranged attacks. However, I trained in fencing long before I entered the Tower, so I have no intention of hiding strictly in the back."
Encouraged by his lead, Bogard and I stepped forward at the same time.
"I learned martial arts in the Tower," I said. "I primarily rely on swordsmanship."
"I've got me a werewolf transformation!" Bogard boomed. "Once I shift, this body of mine gets several times tougher!"
With the three of us stepping up to volunteer for the vanguard, the others began to open up and share their abilities one by one.
Breaking down our composition, we had two tankers, four melee DPS, two ranged DPS, and two supports.
Our tankers were Diana, who possessed a hardening ability, and Jonathan, the Black climber clad in heavy armor. Our melee vanguard consisted of myself, the werewolf Bogard, a Vietnamese climber who could transmute his body into metal, and another Vietnamese climber who was a tamer. For ranged DPS, we had Lee Suyoung with her slime summons and William with his magic arrows. Finally, our support roles were filled by Camilla, a Black druid who manipulated plants, and the skinny American alchemist.
Bogard grinned as he assessed our lineup. "Well, the balance is damn near perfect. This is a textbook raid party. But as a tamer, aren't you supposed to have your beasts with you? Can you summon them?"
The tamer nodded politely. "Ah, yes. I can summon them at any time."
He pulled a small flute from his pocket and blew a quick note. In an instant, a large wolf materialized from thin air. It appeared the flute was a specialized item used to store tamed monsters.
"Now, about the scouting..." William trailed off, his eyes sweeping over the group.
The reactions were mixed. Some remained entirely indifferent, while others actively avoided eye contact. Since no one else was stepping forward, I raised my hand.
"I'll go take a look. I'm fast on my feet, so even if I get spotted, I'm confident I can escape."
A few of the climbers cleared their throats in embarrassment, feeling guilty for not volunteering, while others openly sighed in relief. I made a mental note of those who had the decency to look ashamed.
As soon as I volunteered, Lee Suyoung and Diana stepped forward as well.
"I'll go with you. We're a party, after all."
"I'll join you too. It's better than you carrying the risk alone."
I shook my head at their offers. "I'm going in with the assumption that I'll have to run. You two are too slow."
While Suyoung could technically send her slimes ahead to scout, we had no way of knowing how accurately a slime could perceive its surroundings. More importantly, we couldn't risk revealing the fact that she could share her summons' senses to a group of strangers. Such critical information was best kept strictly within our core party.
William looked at me with a worried expression. "I know you're exceptionally fast, Jiwoo, but are you sure about this? The Chimera has wings and is capable of flight."
"According to the flyer, it can only glide for about a minute at most. It won't be an issue."
By utilizing my lightfoot technique, I could reach a burst speed of eighty kilometers per hour. While I couldn't sustain that pace for long—perhaps two to three minutes at most—it was more than enough to outrun a Chimera. Running at eighty kilometers per hour for three minutes would put nearly four kilometers of distance between us.
"This is the map the villagers gave us," William said, handing over a parchment. "It's crude, but they say the pass where the Chimera has nested is roughly three kilometers away."
Comparing the surrounding mountains with the village's position, I oriented the map and easily established our direction. However, the scale felt slightly off. Considering the distance between the village and those peaks, the gap on the paper should have been wider. I could see why William had called the map crude.
"Alright, I'll be back."
As I studied the terrain, I realized the path the villagers used was incredibly straightforward and narrow.
I see why they called this the only way out.
This region was a peninsula—specifically, a narrow cape. While one might wonder why they didn't simply fish for survival since the sea was right next to them, the village was bordered by massive coastal cliffs that made launching boats impossible. It was a mystery why anyone would build a settlement in such an isolated place, but historically, it usually came down to two reasons: either the area yielded a highly valuable local specialty, or the founders had been forced to flee here.
In human history, people usually ended up in such places to escape war, evade taxes, or because they were forcibly exiled to colonize the frontier. Since they claimed to live off hunting, perhaps the local game itself was the specialty. Regardless of the reason, I had no interest in the history of a village I would never visit again.
Arriving near the Chimera's nesting ground, I suppressed my presence as much as possible and expanded my Qi-sensing. There was only one entity in the vicinity possessing a massive concentration of Qi and mana. Since it was roaming around in the open, locating it was trivial.
"So that's the Chimera."
I pulled out the 50th-Century Telescope, which I had purchased using my reincarnation avatar's allowance, and observed the beast from a safe distance. The advanced piece of technology was worth every penny; with a simple turn of the dial, it could zoom up to two hundred times.
The Chimera was twice as large as I had anticipated. I had expected it to be the size of a house, but this thing was comparable to a two-story estate. It made sense why the Tower had deployed ten climbers for this stage. In fact, a beast of this scale felt entirely out of place for the 10th-floor range. It was so massive that its lion's mane and goat's horns easily towered over the forest canopy.
"Is that gem on its forehead the weakness?"
Embedded in the center of the Chimera's forehead was a solid, glowing red gem. Perhaps the presence of such an obvious, exposed weakness was the reason this creature was designated as the trial for the 17th floor.
Should I get a little closer?
Holding my breath, I crept as close to the Chimera as I dared. The beast remained completely oblivious to my approach. While herbivores were constantly on high alert, apex predators at the top of the food chain only sharpened their senses when they were actively hunting. The Chimera was no exception. Just as an elephant wouldn't care about a lion wandering nearby, a beast of this size had no reason to pay attention to its surroundings unless it was hungry.
Furthermore, its mana capacity seemed surprisingly low compared to its massive physical bulk. It had likely grown abnormally large due to the experiments conducted within the Life Magic Tower. Perhaps because of its unnatural size, its movements appeared somewhat sluggish.
It was a natural trade-off. While a massive frame provided immense physical strength, it was highly inefficient in terms of stamina and agility.
I think I've observed enough. But just in case... should I try a surprise attack?
No, wait. If I rile it up too much before the actual battle, hunting it will only become more tedious.
I hesitated for a moment, weighing my options, before standing up.
I channeled a massive surge of internal energy into my hand axe and reared my arm back.
"Ah, whatever! Let's do this!"
The moment I unleashed my inner Qi, the Chimera finally noticed my presence and began to move, but its reaction was sluggish. My hand axe flew through the air and struck the red gem on the goat's head with pinpoint accuracy, shattering it into pieces.
"ROOOAAAR!!"
"Ahahaha! Time to run!"
To prevent the beast from tracking me by scent, I set off several cockroach fumigation canisters behind me as I bolted. Through the thick, billowing clouds of insecticide, I saw the goat's head go completely limp, hanging lifelessly. The lion's head, coughing and thrashing in agony from the toxic smoke, began to tear the forest apart in a desperate bid to find me.
I pushed my lightfoot technique to its absolute limit, fleeing at the maximum speed my body could muster.
Sure enough, playing ding-dong ditch was a mean trick, but it was incredibly fun.