Three Seconds
"Hmm..."
Before I stepped into the tower, I read the manual cover to cover.
Everything About Tower Climbing
"So, to sum it up..."
You could enter a tower once a day, three times a week at most. Once you were in, though, you could climb as many floors as you liked and come back out anytime before midnight. Clearing ten floors or more in a single run was entirely possible. Simple farming that wasn't a first clear, on the other hand, was limited to a single floor.
Tower climbing was strictly solo. Aside from the Communal Area that appeared every ten floors, you couldn't meet another Awakener at all. And since those areas only opened after you'd cleared the floor, every single story still had to be taken alone.
Floors one through ten had no mazes and no labyrinths, only straightforward objectives of the kill-this-many variety. Cut the monsters down as fast as you could, and the clear was done. There was no grade for a clear, either. Success or failure—that was the whole of it. Records weren't meaningless, though. Break a world record and you earned an extra bonus, the same as Hermione Hayes had. Ten years on from the towers' arrival, however, the lower floors were already so tightly contested that shaving those times any further was nearly impossible.
Floor 1 — 00:00:08(United States)
Floor 2 — 00:00:11(United States)
Floor 3 — 00:00:03(United States)
Floor 4 — 00:00:09(China)
Floor 5 — 00:02:51(United States)
· · ·
An Awakener blessed with a powerful ability. A strategy already hammered into shape. And, on top of that, the full backing of a nation or an organization. That was what those records were made of.
"Still... almost all of them are American."
I knew they were strong. I hadn't known they were this strong. The United States held a staggering forty world records—67.7 percent of the total. Second was the European Union with seven. Third was China with six. After them came Britain and Japan with two apiece, and finally Brazil and South Africa with one each.
And South Korea?
"Zero..."
A sorry state of affairs. It wasn't that the country was weak across the board. What we lacked was the kind of talent that punches through the ceiling. Worse, a seed that might have grown into a world-class ranker had been lost early.
"That son of a bitch, Zhuan Minhao."
He had swallowed every last scrap of support on offer, then used a Tower Transfer Ticket and bolted for China two years ago. What really burned was that he was still over there, living high and loud.
"Anyway. I think that's everything I need to know..."
Getting in was simple. Work the system, choose to enter, and that was that.
"Last thing. Maybe I should fiddle with my stats."
The stat bonuses sitting unused were frankly terrifying. Ninety-six of them. On raw stats alone I was already at the top of the world, because I'd been gaining them at twice everyone else's rate.
The effects were intuitive enough. Inside a tower, and only inside a tower, every ten points added another multiple of your base ability. If I could normally lift fifty kilograms, Strength 10 let me lift a hundred. Strength 20 meant a hundred and fifty, Strength 30 two hundred. Which meant ordinary training and conditioning helped with a clear, too.
Women were at a relative disadvantage, inevitably. It gave me some idea of just how brutally Hermione Hayes—a world-class ranker in the light warrior class—must have been grinding herself down.
"The problem is how to split them..."
Strength, Agility, Stamina, Spirit. Most people distributed their stats to suit their awakening skill. Mine, Heal: EX, didn't care about any of them. It didn't spend mana, and the amount it restored couldn't grow any further. Spirit, then, could wait. Aside from resistance to status ailments, it wasn't a stat that meant anything to me yet.
"Thirty-two into each of the rest ought to do it."
My level was going to climb easily for a while anyway. No point agonizing over it.
Investing 32 points in Strength.
Investing 32 points in Agility.
Investing 32 points in Stamina.
※ Total stats shared by Apostles: 6.5
※ Base stat total has exceeded 100. Stat effects increased by an additional 25%.
"Oh?"
Passing a hundred in total stats raised the effect? That was news to me. It wasn't on the wiki, and it wasn't in the guide by Jim Turner, self-proclaimed number one in the world.
"Figures."
Thinking about it, of course it wasn't. No one had ever pushed their stats past a hundred. You received one stat bonus per level, so unless some separate bonus was involved, you had to be level 100 before you could cross that line. Even the climbers at the very peak were only level 75 to 78. Still a long way off.
"Perfect."
Preparations were finished. All that remained was stepping into the tower.
"Oh—right."
I settled a large mask over my face. I needed to test Summon as well. An Apostle supposedly couldn't harm me no matter the means, but I still wanted to be careful about showing my face.
"Let's go."
I worked the system and selected Tower Entry.
Enter Daejeon Tower?
Currently accessible floor: Floor 1
Cleared floors: None
"Enter."
Vwooooo—!
"Ugh..."
A strange feeling. That peculiar, unpleasant lurch of dropping from the crest of a roller coaster—my organs thrown out of place, then only just settling back where they belonged.
Objective: Defeat 10 goblins
This is your first clear. Your time is being recorded. An additional reward will be granted if you break the world record.
Your senses will be adjusted to match your status.
Basic equipment has been issued.
The clear begins when you leave the safety line.
"Whoa."
Defeat ten goblins. The most orthodox objective there was. The world record for Floor 1 was eight seconds, which meant anything slower than seven wouldn't break it. The goblins weren't even clustered together. Unless you'd awakened a ranged skill, you could more or less call it impossible.
"But what if I summon Kim Minsung?"
A level 62 Awakener. Kim Minsung, who had already cleared as far as Floor 51, helping me take Floor 1.
"Summon. Kim Minsung."
1st Apostle — Kim Minsung
Each Apostle may be summoned only once per day.
Current summon duration: 2 hours.
Vwooooom—!
Kim Minsung appeared in a wash of bright light—T-shirt, shorts, and a cheap aluminum pot with a handle in his hands.
"...Slurp?"
He was eating ramen. Noodles still caught in his mouth, he looked this way and that, a man whose face had not yet caught up with the situation. It didn't last.
"D-don't tell me—!"
Kim Minsung inhaled the rest of the noodles, flung the pot aside, and shouted, shaking with excitement.
...A nod.
Overwhelmed by the force rolling off him, I barely managed that much. Kim Minsung only grew more fervent.
"Thank you for summoning me! I have longed to behold You in person and offer my thanks! I truly did not wish to die! I was right in the middle of preparing to marry my girlfriend—"
Stop. Don't say another word. It's dangerous.
"Ah. I see. Forgive me. I very nearly caused a disaster."
I didn't say a word out loud...?
Kim Minsung moved as if he could hear my thoughts.
"Incidentally, where is this?"
Floor 1.
"The first floor... Ten goblins, then."
Kim Minsung grinned.
"Shall I simply sweep the lot of them away?"
That's the idea. But if I can help it, I want the clear inside seven seconds.
"It will be no trouble."
No trouble? He's a swordsman through and through. He shouldn't have any ranged techniques.
"Swordsmanship refined to its peak cannot be told apart from magic."
So I really don't have to do a thing?
"Yes. You need only watch at your ease, from somewhere safe."
This was the greatest climber in Daejeon Tower, speaking with that much certainty. I could leave it to him.
The notice came cold, and yellow lights kindled all around us. Goblin eyes.
"I'm going!"
Boom—!
The solid flagstones of the first floor split, and Kim Minsung's body became a single streak of light.
Shing—!
Four goblins burst blood and dropped beneath a stroke swung with his whole momentum behind it. The blade had never even touched them.
Fwoooosh—!
The other direction this time. Those goblins stood nearly ten paces off, and still, the instant the sword-wind reached them, they spilled blood and fell.
One left. A goblin chief. It blinked as if it couldn't believe what it was seeing. The club it had been gripping was already rolling across the floor. The will to fight had left it.
"S-spare—!"
Shunk—!
The sword Kim Minsung had thrown buried itself in the thing's skull.
Goblins Defeated: 10 / 10
Time elapsed: 00:00:03
◈ 3,000 EXP (first-clear bonus)
◈ Magic stones, 2 kg (first-clear bonus)
◈ 2 Coins (first-clear bonus)
...Three seconds?
Congratulations. You have set a new world record for clearing Floor 1. A special reward has been granted.
✦ Fragment of Omnipotence (EX) ×1
✦ Status bonus ×1
Three seconds...
I couldn't believe it even after watching it happen. It had felt a little longer than that.
"Ah, that is because this place is a tower. When one's Agility is high, time seems to slow."
Aha. So that was how climbers swatted aside arrows they couldn't even see.
"Will You continue the clear? Of the summoning time, there is still... about one hour and fifty-eight minutes remaining."
Of course. I'd come this far meaning to climb to the tenth floor. But there was something I wanted to check first.
The Fragment of Omnipotence I'd just received as the extra reward.
Effect: Combine 10 fragments to complete a Mark of Omnipotence.
※ Cannot be traded.
"Just as I thought...!"
I'd found it, and quickly. A way to make a Mark of Omnipotence again.