The New Companion
Lee Sia blinked and kept staring at the white-haired Caucasian beauty.
Someone she would be rolling with from now on.
In other words, a companion.
Of course Yujin had meant slave, but Sia took it that way.
She still had no awareness that she herself was a slave, after all.
She's ridiculously pretty.
Did she have albinism or something?
Skin as white as snow, and hair even whiter than that.
So bright it almost looked silver.
And Baekbaek, of all things. I can pretty much guess how he came up with the nickname.
Thinking about Yujin's usual behavior made the answer easy.
White-haired white girl, or the reverse.
Shortened to Baekbaek.
Honestly, so basic. Calling a beauty like that Baekbaek? Baekbaek?
Sia already liked Baekbaek—no, Vivian.
Until now she had been the only woman in the party, and that had quietly made a lot of things uncomfortable.
And now the newest companion was a woman.
A woman so beautiful the word just slipped out on its own.
Of course she was thrilled.
How do I get close to her? What if her personality's super prickly? That'd be a problem. No, wait—someone that pretty has to have a nice personality. You can tell just from how she looks like she doesn't get along with that maniac. Should I try saying hello first?
She was spinning every kind of nonsense inside her head.
Then, suddenly—her eyes met Vivian's.
Now!
The moment she had been waiting for arrived!
Sia, who had been counting down to this exact second, put on her most confident smile.
A crooked little grin—.
…Huh?
She felt like she had just made a weird face.
She had been so tense that instead of a fresh, bright smile, something subtly off had formed on her lips.
No way, right?
Sia grew anxious inside. Across from her, Vivian—who had been staring blankly this way—furrowed her brow.
As if she had just seen something disgusting.
"What a rude child."
Aaaagh—!
Sia screamed internally.
She had felt something was off, and sure enough, she had pulled the wrong expression.
"Ah, no, that's not—"
She hurriedly tried to explain, but Vivian had already turned her head away.
From her profile it was painfully clear she had no desire to associate with Sia at all.
…Is this how that maniac felt?
When she first met that psychopath.
He had spouted nonsense.
What had he said again?
That she had lost her beauty?
If that had happened outside the Tower instead of inside it, she would have had no grounds to complain even if she got slapped across the face.
But it turned out to have been a misunderstanding.
Until now Sia had never believed those words.
She had thought he was just making excuses to cover his own mistake.
Yet right now her own situation looked similar.
Except that she had become the perpetrator instead of the victim.
Maybe Seong Yujin is actually a decent person.
Maybe a few unintended misunderstandings had piled up and stuck a weird image on him—like hell they had.
That guy is definitely a maniac. My situation is totally different.
Yeah, no question.
Being compared to Seong Yujin was itself an insult.
Sia shook the useless thoughts out of her head and looked at Vivian again.
I have to wait for a chance and clear this up.
She wouldn't be some unreasonable, communication-proof lunatic like Seong Yujin.
So she just needed to talk it out, fix the misunderstanding, and build a friendship.
That was what Sia thought.
Meanwhile, Vivian was thinking:
A stalker?
The feeling that her face was about to be drilled through made cold sweat run down her back.
If a gaze could carry physical force, a hole would definitely have opened up already.
That was how deranged the stare was.
…Someone I should never keep close.
First was Seong Yujin, second was Lee Sia, and last was Park Ji-hoo.
That was the ranking Vivian set.
From her perspective, not a single person in this party was normal.
Even Park Ji-hoo, who seemed the least bad, was currently talking to empty air.
How did I end up…
Stuck with these people? It felt so unfair.
"Get ready soon."
They had roughly introduced themselves and been given time to memorize faces.
Now it was time to start climbing again.
"Ah, right. Mister."
Just then Sia suddenly called out to Yujin.
"What? If you want to rest more, suck it up. I don't feel like wasting any more time."
The time they had spent in Viridgrave had already been far too long.
Normally, after eating the food here for more than three days they should have come down with Ghost Disease.
Fortunately, Vivian's Financial Healing [C] had cured even that.
Of course a considerable number of dollars had gone up in flames in the process.
Either way, Ghost Disease or not, there was no longer any reason to stay in Viridgrave.
"No, it's not that."
Sia continued with an irritated look.
"Outside I ran into Dr. Lee Ki-seok."
"…Tell me."
Sia meeting that man.
A situation he had not expected at all.
"Nothing special. He just said the thing you asked for before is progressing well. And he asked when you're coming outside."
"Hmm, that so?"
Fortunately it was closer to good news.
It was a little disappointing that the conversation had not finished, but since things were going well, he did not need to worry.
"Anyway, he said he figured out a few more of those combination formulas or whatever. Nothing hugely useful yet, but if they keep researching he thinks something decent will come out. He asked me to pass that along."
That was good news too.
"Nice."
Even without him stepping out, the things that needed to progress were progressing smoothly.
"I'll head out once on the 15th Floor."
By then the world would have changed again.
It would be around the time players who had reached the 5th Floor started pouring outside in droves.
"Talk might move faster then."
There was a saying: three people make a tiger.
When three people gathered, they could create a tiger that never existed.
Words spoken by three players carried that much weight.
How much greater would it be with thirty?
The sheer weight of credibility would be on another level.
And if it became three hundred—no, three thousand?
On a stage where lies could be turned into truth, making people believe facts would be nothing.
Once the world learned the truth about the Tower that way, the support and research Yujin had requested would inevitably gain momentum.
Faster than the first timeline.
Yujin nodded with a satisfied expression.
"Good. Then all we have to do is handle our side well."
Outside support existed solely for climbing the Tower.
So they had to climb.
However, from now on the focus would be less on ascending floors themselves and more on growth.
In other words, they needed to concentrate on solidifying their foundations.
The reason was simple.
From the 16th Floor to the 19th Floor is a section four people cannot clear.
Was it because they lacked strength?
No.
Honestly the difficulty was something Yujin could clear alone.
But he could not, because of one rule.
Minimum of ten people.
Until more than ten people gathered, no matter what you did you could not climb the Tower.
No—progress itself would not even begin.
Monsters, boss monsters, quests—none of them would activate.
Only empty space would exist.
You would wait blankly, and the moment ten people filled in, the space would abruptly transform and a quest would be issued.
Only by clearing that could you ascend to the higher floors.
So there's no need to rush.
Instead, until they reached the 16th Floor, they would raise levels and skill proficiency as much as possible.
That was what solidifying foundations meant.
Yujin moved his feet, leaving Bones Inn while sunk in thought.
What was the fastest growth method?
What methods could make the slaves even a little stronger?
Even endless thinking and calculating were not enough.
Lee Sia, Park Ji-hoo, and Vivian followed behind that Yujin.
Park Ji-hoo's steps, as he said goodbye to Nia, were especially slow, yet he still moved without heaviness.
Like that, the four headed toward the stairs leading to the 11th Floor.
"You three take it down."
Naturally, a boss monster guarded the stairs of the 10th Floor as well.
Blood Dragon.
A lizard whose ominous dark-red scales looked as if they had been dyed in blood.
At a glance it resembled a Flame Dragon or Fire Dragon, but it possessed no fire techniques.
Instead it spat rotten blood-water as breath.
Anything it touched was poisoned with Decay; without proper treatment, death came within thirty minutes.
Normally a rather troublesome opponent.
But right now it did not matter.
Blood poison or gut poison—
They had a healer who swung dollars like weapons and took responsibility for her allies' lives!
"Go!"
At Yujin's shout Sia grumbled.
"He never does the hard stuff himself. Always makes someone else do it."
Yujin ignored the muttered slander digging into his ears.
He simply watched his three slaves, looking forward to the sight of dollars raining down.
"Ji-hoo, you and I should go first."
According to Yujin, Vivian was a healer.
That meant her main skills were support rather than offense.
They would have to handle attack and defense up front.
"Unnie, we're counting on you from the back."
Sia beamed and tried to entrust her back to Vivian.
Or rather, she tried to.
"I'll start. First strike is mine."
"…What?"
A mental voice that went What kind of bullshit is this? seemed almost audible.
But Vivian did not even glance at Sia's expression as she drew the ornate blue staff strapped to her back.
Superior weapon item
Enchanted with lightning-attribute skills
Vivian drew up her mana and activated a skill toward the Blood Dragon.
Thunderbolt [E]
KWA-GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGANG—!
In an instant the sky darkened, and a single massive bolt of lightning crashed down onto the Blood Dragon's head.
Accompanied by tremendous thunder.
GROOOOOOOOOH—!
The roughly ten-meter dragon species roared in sudden agony and fury.
"Hmm."
Vivian's brow furrowed.
Even though it had been a perfect surprise attack, the damage was smaller than expected.
"You thought that would one-shot it?"
The Blood Dragon was the boss monster guarding the 10th Floor.
In contrast, Thunderbolt [E] was merely an E-grade skill.
Powerful, yes, but far from enough to kill a boss monster in one hit.
GRRRRRRRRRR—.
The enraged Blood Dragon's crimson eyes turned their way.
The atmosphere suggested it would spit its breath at any second.
"Hit it!"
Sia, who had been standing blankly in shock at the healer Vivian's attack, snapped back to her senses late and shouted.
Fierce Tiger Strike [D]
AOOOOOOOOH—!
A beast's roar exploded from Park Ji-hoo's fist.
At the same time the ground ahead began to be swept away by fist pressure.
A colossal force that did not even compare to Vivian's Thunderbolt [E].
The white-haired woman widened her eyes—then Sia, finished with her preparations, moved.
Black Flash [D]
In the green-tinged darkness of the 10th Floor, a single streak of light flashed.
KWAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—!
Behind the beast path Park Ji-hoo had created, a sword trajectory followed.
A short span of time that split a single second many times over.
Black Wing [C] spread its black pinions and punched straight through the blood-soaked dragon scales.
GYAAAAAAAAA—!
A breath of pure blood-water erupted.
CHIIIIIIIIS—!
Decay melted and killed everything it touched.
"Vivi Nuna!"
At that moment Park Ji-hoo shouted, and Vivian instinctively scattered dollars.
Enough of them to reach even Lee Sia far away.
Financial Healing [C]
Financial Healing completely restored the poisoned space.
Like a bank account on payday, it was a beautiful and sacred sight.