It Couldn't Be Because of Me, Right?

The moment the expedition ended, the High Elf city before my eyes vanished, and the familiar hideout where we usually stayed reappeared.

"Catch one SS-rank monster and I can put it to thrifty use, huh?"

"Woof!"

"Make my body too!"

Right before the expedition closed, I had already gathered every other material needed to create the Void Elf Queen. All that remained was a single SS-rank monster corpse. With that, I could craft both Lucy's true body and the Void Elf Queen.

"The problem is where to get one..."

"Let's go to the Tower! It'll come out of the Tower!"

"Even on Impossible difficulty, you'd probably need to reach around the 30th floor before one shows up, right?"

"Then we just go to the 30th floor!"

Just because a gate was S-rank didn't mean every monster inside was S-rank. Generally, an S-rank gate simply meant the strongest creature within was S-rank.

Using the High Elves as a baseline, ordinary High Elves were A-rank, while the High Elf Royal Guard and High Elf Queen were S-rank. So obtaining an SS-rank monster corpse meant hunting the boss of an SS-rank gate.

Of course, right now we couldn't handle an SS-rank—hell, even S-rank monsters were a stretch. Without Lucy, even A-rank monsters required the entire Legion to dogpile them.

"Well, it's still a distant worry for now."

"Not that distant! I'll catch one for you!"

"Got it. Let's check the other stuff first."

I turned my gaze back to the system window. Lucy and Poppy sidled up beside me to peer at it together.

"Figures. No High Elf items."

These were the items collected during the expedition. To bring them back to Earth, you had to spend points and repurchase them. Rankers who had actually conquered the High Elf city probably found High Elf gear in the shop. I had arrived late and only scavenged corpses, so the shop had nothing worthwhile.

"They really scraped everything clean, even though they couldn't take it all with them."

"There was a C-rank item, though?"

"That level's useless."

While picking through High Elf corpses, I had searched for any gear the rankers might have left behind. Unfortunately, anything useful had already been looted. Of course, with my Inventory, I didn't need the Item Shop at all.

The other consumable materials were useless to me. I had swept up the gear from the strongest monster I personally killed—the Corrupted Elf Elder.

"The bracelet and necklace just give mana efficiency and spirit affinity—nothing special. The bow's a bit hard for me to use..."

Back when I worked for the Celestial Bow Guild, I had trained with all sorts of weapons. The bow was the one I struggled with the most.

"I'll give it to a Void Monkey Elite when one appears."

"Then give it to me! It looks pretty!"

"You're a ghost when you fight anyway."

"Ah..."

I brushed off Lucy's request lightly and checked the remaining messages.

"I half expected it, but of course no Escape Tickets."

Escape Tickets were event rewards from the Tower. With one, you could leave mid-floor without clearing it. Essential for high-floor Hard difficulty users. But Impossible apparently forbade mid-run escapes.

"Makes sense. If these are real existing dimensions rather than fabricated worlds, you can't just rewind time."

Using an Escape Ticket and re-challenging a floor later returned you to the moment you first entered. Dead monsters and NPCs revived, and missions reset. On Impossible, where every floor was reality, mid-run escape being impossible was only natural.

"More importantly... I never thought I'd get this so soon..."

At a glance, first place on the expedition might seem like a meager reward of a single upgrade ticket. But this was the prize every Awakened dreamed of.

The Transcendence Ticket awarded for clearing the 100th floor on Easy or Normal was the full version. The Skill Upgrade Ticket was its downgraded counterpart. Unbuyable with points—obtainable only as a Tower clear reward. Who knew when another would appear, so the choice had to be careful.

"Emotion Sharing and Pack Lord can't be upgraded."

I had hoped upgrading Emotion Sharing might grant the legendary hive mind, or that Pack Lord could be strengthened. Sadly, both were already judged at maximum capacity. Even with the ticket, fully maxed abilities couldn't be selected.

That left me with three real options:

Regeneration (SSS) → Super Regeneration (SSS)

Stealth (SSS) → Absolute Stealth (SSS)

Inventory (F) → Subspace (F)

"Isn't Mental Immunity more broken?"

Lucy, peeking at my system window, asked.

"Tower skills have a sneaky forced side to them. 'Immunity' doesn't mean true invincibility."

"What? How does that work?!"

Even if I had Mental Immunity, it wouldn't block every mental attack. Like the unstoppable spear versus the unbreakable shield—if the opponent's mental skill ranked higher, it punched through Mental Immunity.

"Absolute Stealth is solid too, but..."

The base Stealth skill had surprisingly low versatility. It didn't hide body heat, so thermal cameras caught you. It didn't erase the space you occupied, so scattering visible powder left a clean spot only where the stealthed Awakened hid.

Absolute Stealth erased all those flaws—a true superpower. Yet...

"There's always a counter."

The reason I got spotted on the final day of the expedition in the forest full of S-rank monsters: a well-hidden trap still forced Absolute Stealth to drop. Years ago, a high ranker with Absolute Stealth had infiltrated the U.S. Pentagon only to be caught by Captain.

"I wouldn't regret picking Super Regeneration either..."

I had once met a high ranker who possessed Super Regeneration. He claimed he returned even from death and was invincible. That man took a breath from a dragon subspecies in an S-rank gate and vanished without a trace.

Super Regeneration let a body split in half reassemble itself and revive even after heart and brain destruction—but if over 90% of the body was annihilated at once, you still died.

"These skills are so useless! What kind of Super Regeneration has restrictions like that?!"

"Says the one with Eyes That Chase the Heavens who still can't even look at high-ranking gods."

"I just haven't met them yet! When I do, it'll be different—"

"Honorifics."

"...different, sir?"

In the end, every option had its pros and cons. My gaze drifted elsewhere.

Inventory (F) → Subspace (F)

"Subspace, huh... Probably just creates a space that can hold anything?"

"Hah! Then we could take the bread kids into Subspace!"

My current Inventory held only five items. Living creatures were out of the question—even food or magic stones wouldn't fit. Its versatility was abysmal.

"Honestly, even accounting for the drawbacks, Super Regeneration and Absolute Stealth aren't bad at all..."

Either would more than earn its keep. But in the end, my choice was Subspace.

"Items max out at ten, huh."

"What the hell! The Tower's so stingy!"

"If there was no item limit, the Subspace size would probably be tiny—like a small box."

Judging by other known skills, if Subspace had no item restriction, its volume would almost certainly shrink to something pathetic. The Tower handed out broken abilities, but always with hard limits.

"This size should fit about three elite mobs, right?"

As I pondered how to cram as many as possible inside, another ability surfaced in my mind.

"Right, there's that too."

An ability so mediocre I had completely forgotten it. Just in case, I dumped 9,000 points into it.

Originally holding only 1,000 resources, Void Pocket now maxed at 5,500 at level 10. Given how much the Legion was raking in, the number was basically meaningless. I checked the next upgrade.

"What the hell is that awkward number?"

It felt like someone had slapped random values together without thinking ahead and then scrambled to clean it up later. The max of 5,500 already felt off; at level 20 it would hit a clean 100,000.

The new special upgrade wasn't quite what I had wanted. Remaining points: 2,184,029. With the points stockpiled through day seven plus the final reward still comfortably left, I upgraded Void Pocket to level 20 and bought the special upgrade.

"Only regulars, no elites? Pretty useless."

"It says it goes up if you level it more?"

"Hitting level 30 would cost a million points. Too wasteful right now."

Maybe later after heavy investment, but for now it was awkward to use. Still, the price was cheap, so I bought it.

Remaining points: 1,974,029. Roughly two million left. I already knew exactly where these points were going.

"Poppy, ready?"

"Woof!"

"Me too! Me too!"

"Lucy, I can't do much for you."

"It's fine!"

Lucy had contributed heavily to devouring the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠High Elf Queen's corpse, so I raised her level as a reward. Now it was my turn and Poppy's. Without hesitation, I distributed the rest.

Remaining points: 34,029.

"Hmm... the evolution missions look pretty picky."

"Obviously we go Spirit! Spirit, let's go Spirit!"

"Woof?"

Poppy hitting level 50 unlocked special evolution. The condition was for Poppy to hunt an S-rank monster with a specific ability. Spirit required an S-rank spirit monster; Immortal required one with regeneration. Right now, I had no way to choose proactively.

"We'll just have to pass on it for now."

"Woof!"

"Isn't there a Greedy Void Tiger? Our Poppy's pretty greedy too."

"Woof?"

I couldn't conjure what didn't exist, so I checked the other special upgrades Poppy had gained.

Both skills had solid performance. Points distributed, it was time to challenge Impossible difficulty Floor 6.

"Isn't Floor 6 way too easy?"

"Of course it's easy with this body around!"

"Woof!"

Before entering the Tower, I logged into the Hunter community.

"I should report that the Gate Worshippers interfered with the expedition... and check how people are reacting to our Legion."

During the expedition the community had been offline, so information exchange was slow. Now that it was over, the boards would be buzzing with new stories. I expected posts about our Legion saving the lower-floor people to flood everything, but...

"...It couldn't be because of me, right?"

"Woof."

Suddenly the missions that needed an SS-rank corpse flashed through my mind.

"Nah. If it appeared just to feed me a sacrifice, they wouldn't set the collapse timer that short."

If a gate truly spawned to hand me a corpse, it wouldn't work like this. On an expedition or in the Tower maybe, but on Earth, corpses of monsters slain at gates could be claimed. High-grade monster corpses were materials for crafting items. Unlike the expedition where corpses were abandoned, securing an SS-rank corpse from that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠gate would be difficult.

"Well, what we have to do doesn't change."

"Hurry up! I want to hit level 10 too!"

"Hold on, there's stuff to do first."

I immediately left the hideout and swept up every resource in the vicinity.

"Can I just cut down all the trees?"

"We don't have much time left to stay hidden anyway."

Until now I had been careful about felling trees for fear of satellite photos. That time was over. The government would be busy with the SS-rank gate; the odds of them noticing this place were low.

After a proper look at the community, I found posts about the Gate Worshippers and villains that Degore had written. No need to repeat the same story, so I didn't have to post anything myself. Now was the time to focus on my own work.

Three weeks until the SS-rank Gate raid. To reach high-ranker level in that time, I had to climb the Tower fast.

"Since it's come to this, how about we become speedrunners?"

"Woof!"

Originally I had expected clearing Floor 6 to take several days before the expedition. Now that it was over, our combat power had jumped dozens of times. The Tower was relative evaluation—farming monsters for points wouldn't yield high scores easily.

Clearing floors faster than anyone else and snatching the shortest-clear rewards was the smarter play.

"One hour. That should be plenty."

I skimmed the mission objectives and sprinted toward the goal.