How to Earn 500 Million in Three Days (2)
The 30th floor had a two-layer structure of sorts.
Beyond the dark forest, a massive device resembling a portal came into view. The setup was simple: defeat the mid-boss and regular monsters to meet the portal's entry conditions, at which point it would light up and open. And the simpler a Magic Tower's clear conditions were, the harder they tended to be.
Once you stepped through the open portal, a giant griffin and an escape stone awaited the players. In truth, Choi Junseok had only appeared unprepared in Lee Jiyu's eyes. He already had experience clearing up to the mid-30th floors. Instead of sleeping, he had calculated the timing for summoning Lee Nayeon and Song Hana along with the Holy Sword, accounted for unexpected variables, and even estimated his clear time as he climbed.
As always, upon entering the 30th floor, Choi Junseok relayed his strategy to the two summons through his thoughts.
Without even saying "start," Choi Junseok summoned Lee Nayeon's sword Caliburn and hurled it spinning into the forest ahead.
Whoosh—!!
A tremendous shockwave spread as if it would push Choi Junseok backward, carving a path through the forest.
Rumble… Crack!
The absurd opening move sliced through every tree in a straight line toward the giant portal. From within the forest, a pack of basilisks began to emerge. Each one was easily over three meters long—a massive lizard with a lion's mane and skin thicker than steel. They were like tanks, immune to most magical and physical attacks alike. A single bite from their sharp teeth inflicted disease and petrification. They were tricky opponents; prolonged eye contact could also trigger petrification. While one or two could be handled by diverting their gaze to legs or torsos, fighting while surrounded by multiple basilisks without looking at even one was practically impossible. That was why the previous record for the fastest 30th-floor clear stood at 19 minutes and 22 seconds.
But Choi Junseok had no intention of taking more than ten minutes.
He immediately dashed down the cleared path, unsummoned Lee Nayeon, then resummoned her beside the sword embedded in the ground. As Lee Nayeon raised her head with Caliburn in hand, dozens of basilisks approached, flicking their tongues with hissing sounds.
The instant she lifted her sword, a faint blue shockwave spread through the forest. Blue energy swirled around her body, and her afterimage scattered.
Thud!
Lee Nayeon appeared atop one basilisk's head. She drove her blade cleanly between its skull and spine in a single strike. Sharp stone-dust breaths erupted from the other basilisks' mouths, raining toward her. Though the barrage struck directly, none of the breaths even grazed her afterimage. While she slipped between the basilisks like flowing water and slaughtered over a dozen in an instant, Song Hana and Choi Junseok sprinted straight for the portal, launching ranged attacks in every direction.
It was a completely indiscriminate barrage. At Choi Junseok's gesture, dozens of ripples formed in the air, and all manner of junk items—spears, stones, sharp metal scraps—rained down with force.
Whoosh!
They smashed trees, cut them down, toppled them, and pulled aggro from every basilisk in sight, determined to leave none behind. Song Hana did the same. Rather than aiming to kill, she repeatedly drew and released mana-made bowstrings to stretch her skills as far as possible and lure out more basilisks.
Twang! Twang! Twang!
Each heavy arrow pierced through two trees at once, drawing the basilisks closer with every passing second. Following Lee Nayeon's movements as she cut down what looked like at least fifty basilisks with single strokes, Choi Junseok watched his experience bar rise rapidly.
(……Omitted)
Even though he was monopolizing all the experience, reaching the late 90s made his leveling speed noticeably slower. He couldn't help but marvel anew at just how high Yu Junhyeok's level must have been to wield a level 997 Holy Sword. The Sword God, who had already been high-level, had fused with a mythic-grade Holy Sword to create a level 999 blade. Even after monopolizing all the experience and rewards from the 30th floor—less than a third of the tower—he still hadn't reached level 100. That alone made the absurdity of the numbers clear. Choi Junseok intended to break level 100 today.
"They're all gathered!"
At Song Hana's confirmation, Choi Junseok focused on hunting the basilisks as well. Even as an F-rank, his level was overwhelming. Against level 70 basilisks, he could easily kill one or two.
"Summon!"
He unleashed concentrated fire on a single basilisk crawling leisurely toward them on all fours. Yellow ripples formed one after another around it, and a storm of sharp junk items poured down, grinding the creature into nothing.
Choi Junseok and Song Hana sniped the slower ones approaching from afar while Lee Nayeon carved through every basilisk within reach. As always, he checked the remaining time through the steadily decreasing limit timer.
Time Remaining: 3 hours 24 minutes 12 seconds.
'It's already taken over five minutes just to break through.'
Choi Junseok bit his lip at the slower-than-expected pace. He knew it wasn't anyone's fault, but it was becoming clear that they had entered the middle floors. Even so, this speed was still shockingly unprecedented. The standard route for clearing the 30th floor involved luring out basilisks one by one and dealing with them separately. Players prioritized safety, but more importantly, they simply lacked the leeway to face basilisks in groups. The deeper they went into the forest, the more their vision was obstructed. If even one undetected basilisk appeared from behind the rear line, it could lead to a massive disaster.
Hiss!
A basilisk spewed poison mist, but Lee Nayeon dodged it with a sneer. Song Hana blasted a powerful wave of mana forward, sweeping the poison mist out of Choi Junseok's path to either side. As he ran at full speed, the portal drew steadily closer. Only after slaughtering exactly fifty-five basilisks did a strong light flash across the massive circular portal before them.
It was a spiraling entrance that looked like something one shouldn't enter, but Choi Junseok charged straight in without hesitation. Song Hana and Lee Nayeon followed right behind, vanishing into the portal one after another.
Six minutes flat. For some parties, that was barely enough time to encounter even a single basilisk.
Upon entering the boss room, Choi Junseok spotted a massive griffin in the distance. An eagle's head, dragon wings, a basilisk's waist, a hippo's rear, chicken legs, and a tail ending in a snake's head and body—a true chimera-type monster, a mishmash of parts. Yet its most threatening aspect wasn't the various dangerous effects it was armed with. It was its sheer size, easily eight meters tall.
The griffin's comb was known as a weak point in strategy guides, but reaching it meant leaping eight meters into the air. Targeting its head with magic or ranged attacks wasn't viable either. Thanks to the additional effect from its dragonkin lineage—the rulers of magic—any spell that rose above its shoulders triggered strong winds that twisted its trajectory or halved its effectiveness. Given that even one of its legs stood taller than an average adult male, making close-range attacks by jumping upward impractical, most raid parties eventually gave up on targeting the head or comb altogether.
And its rear wasn't weak either. A snake head at the back guarded it with a petrifying gaze and lethal poison, while its rear itself was tough, springy, and reflected both physical and magical attacks with damage immunity. In short, the griffin was a highly troublesome monster that combined only the strengths of various creatures while cunningly concealing its weaknesses.
However, none of that posed a problem for Choi Junseok.
He immediately used Blink to close the distance to the boss monster in an instant. With a flash of light, his position shifted to an optimal range away from the griffin. The moment the creature's massive eyes turned toward him after sensing his presence, Choi Junseok thanked his two summons for their hard work and summoned the Holy Sword along with various other weapons all at once.
Dozens of yellow ripples formed, surrounding the griffin from every direction. A storm of junk items rained down upon it from all sides.
BOOM BOOM BOOM—!!
It was like an endless barrage, as if a storm had struck. Yet not a single item pierced the griffin's body. That was fine. It was only a distraction anyway. While the griffin grew accustomed to the insignificant sandstorm-like assault, a massive ripple suddenly appeared in its blind spot. As the tip of the Holy Sword tore through the air and revealed itself, the griffin's dragon wings flared wide, belatedly sensing the enormous presence hidden within the sandstorm.
BOOOOOOM—!!
But it was already too late. The Holy Sword had mercilessly driven straight into the creature. Though the blade failed to pierce through and instead embedded itself, pinning the griffin to the ground, the impact shook the earth and sent a powerful shockwave rippling outward. The ground itself did not collapse.
Congratulations!
You have cleared the 30th floor.
Clear Time: 7 minutes 9 seconds.
Would you like to register anonymously on the Hall of Fame? (Y/N)
The Recovery Fairy Dragon's additional effect has activated.
Mid-floor clear rewards have been granted.
A massive amount of experience has been acquired.
'Oh…… experience.'
His level shot up to 102 in one go, surpassing 100. At the same time, as expected, the record for the fastest 30th-floor clearer was updated and engraved on the Suseo Magic Tower's Hall of Fame.
30th Floor Fastest Clearer: Anonymous (F-rank) - 7 minutes 9 seconds.
Dozens of people working together couldn't even kill a single basilisk in that time, yet he had slain the boss monster. When asked if he wished to return, Choi Junseok stared at the basilisk corpses for a moment. The creatures whose bodies had collapsed from a single strike of the Holy Sword. Previously, the ground had collapsed, leaving no way to handle the corpses, but now Choi Junseok looked down at the massive remains with a sly grin and nodded.
"Summon Kkamdori!"
At those words, Song Hana, who had been watching from behind, turned deathly pale.