Temple Knights 5
To a gamer, explosives are something close to holy relics.
Misused, they become a cursed thing that walks you straight to your own death — but used well, they turn into the sweetest of shortcuts, letting you casually farm high-HP, high-difficulty monsters, and finding a place in everything from boss raids to griefing to glitches.
I myself, before dropping into this world, used to love loading powder kegs onto the head of a sleeping giant monster in a dragon-hunting game with my friends, then gathering power into a greatsword and splitting them open.
"Throwing them might be a stretch, but luring should be doable. Honestly the blast force looks stronger than mid-tier magic — factoring in mana cost, maybe the combo is shoving them with Earth Control or Telekinesis magic I haven't learned yet, then detonating with a fire arrow?"
That was how deeply Han Se-ah and her viewers were committed to the idea of explosions.
Whether two adventurers with horrific wounds were growing fresh flesh under a baptism of the priests' Holy Power and the Sanctuary buff, clawing their way back from death's door, or whether the rest of the adventurers were panicking over the appearance of explosive trolls — none of it registered with them.
And with so many people watching, the chat was full of ideas that almost looked creative and clever, which left me speechless. Harvest the corpse pile, tear off limbs, and use them as throwing weapons… okay, that one was actually kind of tempting.
"Harvest the tumors for alchemy… you're pretty sharp, huh? Right, Horned Wolves and Full Moon Wolves show up on the tenth floor, so wolf-lure scent was beginner alchemy. Guess even the side content was designed to keep pace with the Tower. Makes sense when you think about it — blacksmithing and the rest would be tuned to produce gear for the Tower too."
While Han Se-ah was deep in heated debate with her viewers, Irene was busy as well. With the priests and nuns called Brother and Sister, and the Temple Knights all rushing about, kind-hearted Irene was never going to just stand there and watch.
She gathered up the wrist guards that had been stripped off for treatment and carried them over beside the priests, then all but snatched a wet cloth from a nun who'd brought towels to wipe away blood and filth, gently cleaning the neck and forearms of the female adventurer whose new flesh was just coming in — a tender, sacred sight.
Priests and nuns of one heart and mind, unbothered by dirtying their hands as they tended the wounded. That overflowing love for humanity must have stirred something even in the onlooking adventurers, because they started bustling around looking for anything they could do to help.
Most eye-catching among them was a male adventurer who set off at a quick pace beyond the safe zone. Light leather armor, a lantern and iron rods and other odds and ends hanging from his belt — anyone could tell he was a thief.
"Um, Fathers? This… seems to be the mana stone from the troll that exploded in front of those adventurers…."
"Is that so? Truly a sincere soul. May the Goddess's grace walk with you on your path."
While the other adventurers awkwardly picked up the victims' armor and weapons to give them a light cleaning, or helped peel off shattered plate with stiff, hesitant hands, one thief had already darted out to the blast center and back. That was an adventurer for you — those two had nearly died, so of course you still had to claim whatever profit was due.
What he held out to the priest tending the patients was a fist-sized mana stone, large and clean. No scratches, and in size it was every bit the equal of the ones we'd taken — so even if a troll exploded, the mana stone apparently didn't vanish with it.
"Oh, so the mana stone still drops even after they blow up. Looks like the game really does want us to hunt by detonating trolls."
Chat or no chat, Han Se-ah's attention was locked entirely on the bomb trolls. What kind of games had she been playing before Heroes Chronicle to get this obsessed with explosives?
The two men and women staggered to their feet under the baptism of Holy Power, and an archer who'd been cradled in Irene's arms came bolting over to her party. Pure white Holy Power and a gentle smile made for a truly sacred scene — but Han Se-ah didn't care enough to even turn the camera.
Irene was filled with a steely resolve to wipe out the undead. Matching her fervor, our party spent longer inside the Tower than usual.
Spending more than a week inside the Tower was ordinary life for adventurers. The gates had made it possible to step outside every three or four days — but now, between the corrupted fields and the undead, we were back to long stretches sealed inside.
"Is there anything we should be careful of, Brothers?"
"The Sanctuaries have only been established up through the thirty-sixth floor. If you mean to hurry your steps to purify the wicked, it would be best to keep pace with the Temple Knights."
"Yes, thank you."
Irene would smile sweetly while speaking with the Temple Knights, then her expression would go ice-cold the moment undead came crawling slowly into view.
How well had she always looked after the party?
If you tried to count every kindness from the morning we met, through the day's adventuring, to falling asleep in the tent, you'd run out of fingers. With that same Irene burning to purge the undead and determined to stay in the Tower, the rest of us fell in without a word of complaint and started pushing floors.
From the thirty-second to the thirty-third, from the thirty-third to the thirty-fourth—
"H-hey! I'll hand over a few mana stones if you can treat this poison!"
"You don't want to go that way. A troll exploded and wiped the path. Should be restored by tomorrow, maybe?"
"Anything suspicious? Haven't seen much besides the trolls that go boom."
Maybe it was because the Temple Knights, nuns, and priests were camping on each floor and raising pillars of Holy Power high into the air — among the adventurers we met, none were baring their teeth and watching each other with suspicion. In a medieval world, even sword-for-hire adventurers turned into gentle lambs in the face of religion.
After a full week inside the Tower, our party was finally able to record the passage on the thirty-fifth floor. Factoring in the time to drop back from the thirty-fourth to the thirtieth, we'd spent nearly ten days inside.
In the old days, just walking up to the thirtieth floor would have taken more than ten days — but with the gates that had appeared thanks to the player Han Se-ah, even ten days in the Tower now felt long.
"We've made it to the thirty-fifth, so we should rest outside the Tower for a bit. This doesn't feel like a game anymore — it feels like labor. At least the trolls are easy to deal with from range with arrows or by searing them with Spark. Without that, I might've already quit and gone on hiatus."
Of course long expeditions started to hit their limits. Not just the party's mental fatigue, but Han Se-ah's inventory, her stream schedule, and the viewers' boredom as well.
The inventory that had held food was slowly filling with mana stones, byproducts, and foraged materials, and chat was starting to fill with lines like "troll explosion one-trick." Zombie crocodiles and lizardman skeletons weren't exactly a feast for the eyes either.
If it had been something with weight and spectacle, like a rideable golem, maybe — but no one was going to enjoy watching a fight that was nothing but slowly, stubbornly beating on something that was gross, sluggish, and just tanky.
"Mm, we've recorded the entrance to the thirty-fifth floor passage, so we should head down soon. The food I stashed in the inventory is almost gone."
"Oh my, is that so…? Then we'll need to leave the Tower for resupply."
The party had been watching Han Se-ah and Irene's faces at the passage. When Irene nodded to Han Se-ah, who'd spoken first, they all let out a quiet breath of relief.
Irene was usually all soft smiles, so her fury at the undead had quietly spooked them — Grace and Katie both looked like they could finally breathe again.
Katie especially, being the youngest in the party, had been stiff as a board reading Irene's mood regardless of any noble title, and her face visibly brightened at the word of leaving.
"So we're not climbing the thirty-fifth — we're turning back? Perfect. I've been wanting to work on my sword for a while. I'm almost out of oiled cloth."
"I've nearly used up all my alchemical arrowheads too. Thinking about fighting trolls, I should drop the miscellaneous tips and stock up heavy on fire and explosion types."
The air was thick with poison and the stench of corpses, the paths were narrow, and the monsters we had to face were disgusting undead. Even a sense of mission kindled by the Goddess's oracle had its limits. The only reason we'd lasted this long was probably that the safe zones were Sanctuaries saturated with Holy Power.
Honestly, it was only Holy Power and the gacha buffs keeping us clean — we were well into the stretch where, like Rebecca in the old days, our hair should have been matting together, our skin going filthy, and we should have been drifting toward the line between person and beast. Without the purified spring water in the safe zones, that would have been all of us.
Short on supplies and food, the party avoided combat with monsters as much as possible and moved quickly toward the thirtieth floor, their steps light enough to be almost cheerful. The open sightlines and the undead's characteristic sluggishness made dodging fights far easier than in cave terrain.
"Everyone — guild tomorrow morning."
"Got it. It's been ages since I got a proper hot bath and sleep…."
"Haaah… I want to wash right now. After we stop by the guild tomorrow, we should hit the market before heading back to the Tower. My arrowheads, and we need to restock food in Hanna's inventory too."
And so, stepping out through the thirtieth-floor gate, the corpse-reek and the musty cave air gave way to the rich, savory smell of baking bread at the tip of the nose. Even that sweet scent wasn't enough — the party just stretched and thought only of getting back to the inn.
With no idea at all what would be waiting for us at the guild the next day.