Summoning the Holy Sword Requires Caution (2)
‘Well… I’ll figure it out once I try.’
Skills couldn’t be used outside a tower.
“I will enter the Magic Tower.”
The nearest Magic Tower is Suseo Magic Tower.
Accessible Floors: Up to Floor 1
Do you wish to enter?
“Enter.”
Choi Junseok had spent so much time in the lower floors as a porter that entering the first floor held no fear for him.
‘The first floor of Suseo Magic Tower tests trap evasion.’
He had even made six or seven round trips to the first floor in a single week before.
And above all else, he could simply stand on the first floor for thirty minutes and return.
Clearing wasn’t the only way to exit.
Time Limit: 30 minutes.
Floor 1 Clear Condition: Defeat the goblin.
That goblin right there.
Unless the traps were cleared, the protective barrier around the goblin wouldn’t be dispelled.
A cross-shaped path.
Narrow passages just wide enough for one person.
Fall into the darkness on either side, and it was over.
On the first floor, you wouldn’t die—you’d simply be forcibly ejected outside the tower.
Still, the sensation of falling endlessly through that darkness was far from pleasant.
Massive anchor-shaped axe blades flew across the entire cross-shaped path.
At the same time, spike traps lined the floor.
Only by breaking through those traps and pressing the buttons on both sides for five seconds would the protective barrier around the goblin—the clear condition for the straight path—finally be lifted.
Quite difficult for a first floor.
Yet the reason people kept repeating this floor was simple.
First, the goblin guaranteed a 100% drop of a magic stone.
Second, that protective barrier wouldn’t even scratch under long-range attacks from high-ranking players.
In other words, it was a grind dungeon that guaranteed steady income while also serving as a perfect training dummy for upper-floor raid teams to practice attack combinations.
Before challenging the upper floors, teams would come to the first floor to test their coordinated patterns against that barrier.
Even if the practice time was limited to thirty minutes at most, there simply wasn’t a sturdier sandbag anywhere else.
It was a flawless protective barrier created by the tower’s mysterious system.
It was already a famous anecdote that even the raid team that cleared the fiftieth floor in record time couldn’t leave a single mark on it despite pouring all their firepower into it.
Time Remaining: 29 minutes 24 seconds.
Thirty seconds had already passed while he stood there blankly.
A hidden reward condition granted only on the first entry into the tower.
A hidden quest given to the first solo visitor.
‘A summon scroll will be granted to the single fastest person to reach it.’
Only the record of clearing the floor “first and alone” was measured and recorded in the tower’s system.
And Lee Jiyu, an S-grade player, had taken first place with a clear time of one minute and forty-eight seconds thanks to her signature “Supersonic” skill.
After the hidden reward condition for the first solo visit became known, many rankers attempted to update the hidden clear ranking.
They even spent precious entry tickets on training instead of climbing the tower.
‘What if I summon a transcendent-grade weapon from a distance?’
Thinking he had nothing to lose, Choi Junseok reached into his inner inventory.
The item he had just seen that could be summoned.
Other items couldn’t be appraised due to level restrictions, but this one he could sense.
At the same time, it was one of the abilities he had awakened as Inventory Master.
The very ability he had always thought was completely useless.
‘The ability to summon items from the inventory at a distance.’
He activated the skill to summon an item from his inventory from afar.
‘Roughly in front of the goblin.’
“Summon. Excalibur.”
At that moment, a single golden holy sword plummeted from the sky like a meteor, striking the center of the traps.
Shwoosh—
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
At the same time, the massive shockwave sent Choi Junseok’s body flying backward into the air.
Congratulations!
You have cleared Floor 1.
Congratulations!
Hidden Reward Condition: Achieved the fastest solo clear.
Clear Time: 1 minute 27 seconds.
Rewards have been granted.
Would you like to register anonymously on the Hall of Fame? (Y/N)
Choi Junseok’s answer was obvious.
“Aaaagh! Ack!”
It wasn’t easy while flying through the air.
Registered anonymously.
Hidden rewards and clear rewards have been granted.
Choi Junseok, who had been sucked into the darkness by the aftershock, jolted awake and sat up in reality.
It was his room.
His younger sister, Choi Hye-ri, turned around in surprise.
“Aish! You scared me! If you were lying down, say something! I thought no one was here!”
“…Where’s Mom?”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden? She went to work.”
“…Ah.”
“Stop mumbling in your sleep and eat. Mom left some rice balls.”
Rice balls made from plain rice seasoned only with salt.
Not even a single sheet of seaweed.
“Hye-ri. The days of these tear-soaked salt rice balls are over.”
“You crazy bastard… What the hell are you saying all of a sudden? Did you win the lottery?”
The lottery?
This wasn’t on the level of the lottery.
His instincts screamed at him.
Choi Hye-ri found her brother’s obedient nod unfamiliar.
‘Did something really happen?’
“I… awakened. As a player.”
Her sister’s eyes widened.
That had been her reaction in the previous life too.
Because the awakening had been the F-grade Inventory skill, optimized for porters.
Even with just that skill, making a living had become easier.
But that was all.
The pay for porters grinding the lower floors of the Magic Tower wasn’t that high.
It hadn’t been enough to cure their mother’s arm or their sister’s magic stone infection that had spread to her lungs.
But now, things were different.
“Where does Mom work?”
“…Why?”
He was thinking of using the healing potion stored in his inventory.
─┼
Magic Tower Defense Headquarters.
Shortened to “MTDH.”
In its massive conference room, the President and several ministers sat in a row.
Above their heads hung red electronic timers.
Red numbers on a giant display board counted down by the second.
Just looking at it was suffocating—the timer that shrank with every passing moment.
The President had ordered the timers installed.
If they couldn’t even feel the tension from those dwindling numbers, they might as well prepare to hand in their resignations.
The phrase written beside it, in bold crimson cursive, carried a grim resolve.
[102 days, 7 hours, 21 minutes, 44 seconds since the appearance of Suseo Magic Tower.]
Normally, it would have been enough to divert a tiny fraction of the profits from the magic stones as compensation and evacuate everyone within 300 days.
But Suseo was different.
A Magic Tower that had risen by piercing through the department store attached to Suseo Station.
According to the collapse simulation for Suseo Magic Tower, the damage radius wasn’t the average 2 km—it was expected to reach 2.3 km.
The ground near the river was even weaker.
If it collapsed, not only Munjeong Station but also the weak ground around Seokchon Lake and Jamsil would sink like dominoes, according to the reports.
If the World Tower fell, the secondary damage in the vicinity would be unimaginable.
It meant the southeastern part of the Seoul metropolitan area around Jamsil would be devastated.
“With 198 days left until the Magic Tower’s collapse, how does it make sense that the top teams have only cleared up to the fifty-eighth floor?”
The Minister of Economy grumbled, but the Minister of National Defense answered as calmly as possible.
“There’s nothing we can do about it. We suffered catastrophic losses at Incheon Magic Tower last time. From first place down to sixth, ninth, fourteenth, all the way to twenty-first…”
“You should have prepared thoroughly for what would follow.”
“Strong players don’t just appear out of nowhere when you snap your fingers, Minister…”
“I heard player awakenings surge above average the moment a Magic Tower appears?”
“That’s correct. However, they still need time to adapt to the tower’s rules and skill usage as players…”
The atmosphere was reminiscent of a congressional hearing.
“What are you going to do when 200 days have passed? Will you still be smiling and taking photos in front of the public like when you first entered?”
“Starting from the 120-day mark, we’ll deploy American players and—”
“Enough with the America talk! Look here! There are already seventeen Magic Towers in America. Do you think they have any room to spare?”
“Of course, I understand America is also in a difficult situation, but they’ve issued evacuation orders for most areas and are focusing all their efforts on only one or two Magic Towers. Even in these trying times, as an ally, according to the agreement…”
“Oh, I’m sure they’re dying to help. When their own backyard is about to sink, they’re going to cross the Pacific because of some agreement…”
“Minister! Let me ask you. Isn’t self-reliant national defense important?”
“Of course… self-reliant defense is important. But… now that the Sword God, the number one ranker, has disappeared… in times of crisis, alliances and the cooperation that comes with them are also important, aren’t they?”
In truth, no real alternatives had emerged.
The meeting was closer to an attempt to find the culprit or pressure the relevant departments.
And at that moment, the conference room door opened slightly, and someone rushed in to whisper something into the Defense Minister’s ear.
The ministers’ brows had furrowed deeply, but upon seeing the Defense Minister’s startled eyes, they sensed something was wrong and waited.
After hearing the report, he wiped his face with dry hands and slowly opened his mouth.
“The player ranked first on the first floor… has changed.”
“…Is that really something to be surprised about?”
“That player’s rank is F-grade. And most importantly, they registered anonymously.”
“…?!”
The ministers, who knew the laws governing players better than anyone, were stunned by the word “anonymous.”
Usually, when players took first place on a specific floor, they revealed their names to the world.
“We’re currently checking if any foreign ranker players have illegally entered Korea to challenge the Magic Tower, but at the very least… there have been no reports of any force capable of clearing the first floor in first place moving around.”
“What does that mean?”
Defense Minister Yoo In-cheol clenched his fist and nodded.
“They’ve appeared. A once-in-a-generation rookie.”
At the same time.
The man called that once-in-a-generation rookie was currently offering prayers with a bowl of water, preparing to spin the reward gacha he had just received from the first floor.
In an empty lot near the refugee village built from repurposed container boxes.
The reward that had entered his inventory.
‘Summon Scroll (Single Use)’
“Please, please! Give me S-grade. Please!”
Instead of the usual confirmation prompt, an unfamiliar window appeared.
A small square box above the “Use” button.
The description read:
- You may register a catalyst to use for the summoning.
“Summon catalyst…?”
Something immediately came to Choi Junseok’s mind.
“I offer the Lionheart’s Gauntlet in my inventory as the catalyst!”
“Waiiit!”
At that moment, Yu Junhyeok tried to stop him, but—
“There’s no rule saying I have to wear it, right?”
It wasn’t an item he could equip anyway.
Might as well use it as a sacrifice.
Click.
The Lionheart’s Gauntlet appeared in the catalyst slot.
“Stoooop!”
Along with Yu Junhyeok’s scream, the summon scroll tore apart, and smoke began to rise.
Through the thick smoke, a beautiful woman with long hair revealed herself.
Her long hair had a slight wave.
The color was unusual.
A dark blonde with a strange reddish tint. Or perhaps it was better to call it red-brown.
A shade right between gold and red.
She wasn’t particularly short, but her clean skin gave her a girlish impression.
However, the words that came from her mouth were something Choi Junseok had never expected.
“Lionheart, Richard the Lionheart. I greet my Lord.”
‘Ri’chard ‘Lion’heart.
Shortened to Lee Nayeon.
She, who would one day become the second-generation Sword God, had appeared.
Following that, Yu Junhyeok’s impressed voice echoed in his mind.
“An exceptionally excellent choice.”
The man who had tried to stop him now looked far more satisfied.