The Elephant Tears Goblins Apart
A week had passed since rumors first began circulating that a skeleton elephant was living at Seoul Zoo.
Dohyeon had spent that stretch busy house-hunting — for a place where he and Taesan could live together.
Fortunately, he'd learned that the Management Bureau maintained free rental housing for Climbers near every Tower.
Korea's Towers numbered three in all — Seoul, Busan, and Jeju.
Dohyeon decided to head for the Jeju Tower rather than the Seoul Tower near his current home. Seoul was the city where he'd lived his whole life, where his small circle of acquaintances was clustered. And yet, after long deliberation about the nature of his abilities, it was a perfectly rational decision.
On the morning of the day Dohyeon settled on taking Taesan with him, Song Seogyeong — who had arrived driving a five-ton truck — looked a little tired.
"You look a bit worn out, Sister-in-law."
"There has been a lot on my plate, but I'm fine. There are plenty of days when it's busier than this."
He had demanded from the Bureau everything a Climber was entitled to demand, but with his assigned handler happening to be Assistant Manager Lim Seonwoo's girlfriend, it felt less like working with an agency and more like making his sister-in-law run his errands.
"I'll admit I did file rather a lot of requests. Even by my own count."
With Taesan joining his (future) formidable skeleton legion, Dohyeon could finally picture his path as a Climber in sharp focus. Moving to Jeju was for Taesan's sake, too. Jeju was known as Samdado, the island of three abundances — rocks, wind, and women — but there was one more thing the island had plenty of: horses.
Once Dohyeon resolved to settle in Jeju and take charge of caring for ailing and elderly horses, the Tower Management Bureau staff found themselves run off their feet — sourcing a suitable ranch and a house, arranging a cooperation agreement with the Korea Racing Authority, and more. The staffers, proud elites to a one, poured their hearts even into interior decorating that nobody had asked for, and worked themselves that much harder.
Dohyeon, who understood exactly how things stood, gave an awkward smile.
"Sister-in-law, for your colleagues who've been putting in the long hours on my account — if there's anything I can treat them to, I will. I'll scout out plenty of great restaurants in Jeju."
Shedding a little of her fatigue, Song Seogyeong answered.
"I'll gratefully eat my fill myself. But there's no need to do anything for my teammates. It's work, after all. Just what we're here to do."
Her tactful refusal hardened Dohyeon's resolve to repay — without ever letting a single installment slip — what amounted to the interest on the money he'd borrowed from the Bureau.
It probably doesn't have much to do with the office workers themselves, but still...
It seemed he was destined to carry only good memories of the Tower Management Bureau.
His thoughts rolled from guilt to gratitude to interest payments to the size of the loan, and in the end arrived at a single conclusion: conquer the Tower.
The money he'd borrowed to acquire the ranch and the house ran to well over a billion won. The Bureau had asked him only briefly about his abilities, rated his potential sky-high, and slapped the cash down — just like that. It was a sum he might have touched only on the eve of retirement, had he spent his whole life as a steady, diligent office worker.
The lucky part was that his income more than covered it. All he did was park himself on a mere sixth floor and run it in circles, and he was pulling in a million won a day.
The higher I climb, the more I'll make.
Even if, someday, he hit a wall on a floor lower than he'd hoped, paying back a loan worth a billion-odd won would be a breeze.
Climber Cha Dohyeon's relocation to Jeju proceeded as smoothly as flowing water, without so much as a pebble in the stream. He visited Seoul Zoo to collect Taesan, drove the length of the country, and boarded the ferry. The five-ton truck, riding the high-speed ferry, reached Jeju Port in just two hours. By the time Dohyeon, Goldie, and Taesan pulled up to their pristine new house and its empty ranch, the day was already fading into dusk.
"Once the cooperation contract with the Korea Racing Authority is signed, the horses will get to live at this ranch too..."
Before unpacking the modest luggage he'd fit into a single carrier, Dohyeon led Taesan to the stable with its high ceiling.
"Hmm... I do feel a little bad about this."
Taesan was a good elephant, one who had trusted him and come along without a fuss. The elephant seemed happy enough, and yet it weighed on Dohyeon that he intended to work the animal for his own benefit while leaving him alone in a chilly stable and heading inside himself.
"The moment I've made some money and paid off the debt, I'm building the house the size of the stable. The whole thing."
Building a private residence the size of a barn was absurd — but in South Korea, nothing was impossible with enough money.
It feels wrong to just leave him out here and walk off... and I'd feel like a jerk ordering jajangmyeon in front of the kids and eating it all by myself...
Dohyeon asked,
"The sun hasn't even set yet — feel like a quick run into the Tower? Let's see what you've got, Taesan."
Click-click!
Click!
Goldie and Taesan both gave their agreement with a clack of their teeth.
Floor 7 of the Tower.
According to the prep work Dohyeon had done, this was a floor where two goblin squads appeared at once — and the tutorial trick of picking enemies off one by one, the intel said, no longer worked here. The two squads camped beside bonfires within easy reach of each other.
Stepping onto the seventh floor, Dohyeon didn't scan his surroundings in a panic the way he used to. With Taesan on his left and Goldie on his right, he felt so thoroughly protected that not a shred of danger-sense stirred in him.
✨ Mana: 3 (+15) / 18
He assigned five mana to Goldie and ten to Taesan.
"Alright, you two. I'm counting on you. I've filled you both up with plenty of mana."
Click-click!
Goldie and Taesan charged the nearest goblin squad.
CRAAACK!
K-Keh, keruk?!
Laughable compared to his living days, perhaps, but Taesan came barreling in at a ponderous 400 kilograms, snapping the overgrown branches aside as he went, and ran goblins through two and three at a time on his long tusks. Half the squad perished instantly in his rampage, and the other half rolled dead across the ground after Goldie's silent ambush. The second squad, alerted by the commotion next door, flung itself at Taesan and Goldie — and met its end having managed barely a single scratch on Taesan's hard jade bones.
Ding!
Tower Floor 7 Cleared!
Q2 2035 Cumulative Points — Seoul Tower: 2,299 | Jeju Tower: 200
Level Up! Distribute your stat points.
The last day of June.
The points Dohyeon had earned over the second quarter came to 2,499 — one short of 2,500.
Dohyeon stood rooted at the spot where he'd first landed on the floor, gaping at the sight of an elephant and a dog pureeing goblins like a blender.
"Is it necromancers that are busted? Or is it the jade bones?"
For Dohyeon, brand-new to the Climber's life, it was impossible to say.
The day after Dohyeon moved to Jeju.
Just past the lunch hour, someone rang the doorbell. Dohyeon was in the middle of his back workout — tug-of-war with Goldie — when the chime sounded.
"Coming! One second!"
Wary of unknown threats, Goldie slipped neatly between Dohyeon's legs and moved with him.
In life he was a people-loving retriever through and through... he seems to have changed a bit since becoming a skeleton.
Click.
Outside the front door stood a woman whose most striking feature was her long hair, swept back into a high ponytail.
"Hello. Are you Climber Cha Dohyeon, by any chance?"
"Yes, I'm Cha Dohyeon. What can I do for you?"
Having confirmed Dohyeon's blankly good-natured face and the jade-hued dog skeleton at his feet, she visibly relaxed.
"I was an employee of the Korea Racing Authority until very recently. I've come because there's something I'd like to discuss with you. Might we have a word?"
"May I ask your name?"
"Ah — my name is Kang Eunseo."
"Please, come in."
Dohyeon welcomed the woman who'd introduced herself as Kang Eunseo without hesitation. After showing her to the table, he handed her a can of Coke that had arrived just that morning with the dawn grocery delivery.
"I only moved in last night, so this is all I can offer. If Coke isn't your thing, there's water as well. The water should at least be cold."
"This is fine, thank you."
Kang Eunseo wrapped both hands around the not-quite-cold can of Coke.
Dohyeon sat down across from her and asked,
"So — what brings you here?"
"To lead with the conclusion: I've come to ask you to hire me."
What followed was the story of Kang Eunseo's unusual circumstances.
Having often tagged along with her father to the racetrack, she'd naturally grown to love horses, and her resume had eventually landed at the Korea Racing Authority's Jeju branch. She'd graduated from Jeju National University's veterinary college and become a licensed veterinarian without a hitch, then joined the Authority just as smoothly. But when the organization's new cost-cutting line — trimming the budgets earmarked for treating sick horses — began making the animals she adored suffer, she'd raised her voice in protest and been driven out. And veterinary license or no, even per-diem work at the existing clinics — every one of them watching the Authority's every mood — had proved out of reach... These days, she said, she was grasping at straws, splitting her time between a YouTube channel and delivery runs.
"So a friend of yours inside the Racing Authority heard about me, and you came straight over on the spot?"
"Yes. That's correct."
There was something in Kang Eunseo's eyes — the look of someone prepared to do anything for what she cherished.
Dohyeon found himself remembering the day he'd walked into the Tower to breathe life into Goldie's jade bones. Back then, he had staked his very life on it.
His mind was more or less made up, but he asked his questions anyway, one at a time.
"And how, exactly, did your friend at the Racing Authority know my home address?"
"She didn't know it either. I simply dug up every ranch that looked like it could be bought. Started first thing in the morning."
"...So the reason you arrived past lunchtime is that you spent the morning knocking on doors all over the island?"
"Yes. As I said — I'm in no position to pass up even a straw. But I can't accept a lower salary. Not when it comes to protecting my horses."
Kang Eunseo dipped her head in a small bow.
Dohyeon replied, looking a little dazed.
"Don't worry about the salary. Someone who means to care for vulnerable animals isn't going to turn around and bleed those same creatures dry."
Among those who felt strongly about animal welfare, there were occasionally people who couldn't sort the essential from the trivial and ended up cherishing animals above their fellow humans — but Dohyeon wasn't one of them.
I needed a veterinarian anyway. Even if all I bring in are sick and aging horses, I can't just skip the basics. The ones in pain will need painkillers, and the ones beyond saving deserve to be let go gently...
"Did you bring your resume?"
"Yes. Here it is."
Dohyeon took the resume and spoke.
"Ms. Kang — let's consider today's meeting an interview. I'll notify you of the decision by text as soon as I possibly can. Barring surprises, you'll have my answer within a week."
At Dohyeon's firm conclusion, Kang Eunseo accepted it without protest.
"Understood. I look forward to hearing from you."
To someone desperate for work, a week might have felt unbearably long... but Dohyeon needed time to look into her as well. She had, after all, left the Korea Racing Authority over an ugly incident; he could hardly take one person's word at face value.
Once she was gone, Dohyeon brushed Goldie's bones.
Shhhk-shhhk.
"I suppose I'd better show up in person for that coordination meeting with the Racing Authority."
Dohyeon sent a text to the contact saved under Sister-in-law (Song Seogyeong).
Ding-dong!
As though she had been waiting for exactly this message, Song Seogyeong fired back her reply without a moment's delay.
Seoul Tower Management Bureau, Climber Support Team.
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.
Assistant Manager Song Seogyeong was typing away on her smartphone when Team Leader 1, passing by, glanced over.
"Assistant Manager Song. That's your work phone, isn't it? Who is it? That person of yours?"
Song Seogyeong nodded.
"It's Climber Cha Dohyeon. He says he'd like to sit in on the negotiations with the Racing Authority."
"Well, that's a surprise. Don't Climbers all hate hassle? Why would he want to attend?"
Having texted the External Cooperation Division staffer in charge of the Racing Authority talks, Song Seogyeong flipped her smartphone face-down on the desk.
"Who's to say? It wasn't something I needed to know, so I didn't ask."
"Fair enough. I hear young men hate being chatted up these days. Bother them too often and they'll ditch their regular spot for a new one. We need to ride the trend too — and win as the cool Bureau that knows better than to pester people."
Team Leader 1 recited the advice he'd already dispensed any number of times.
"You'll handle it fine, Assistant Manager Song. In any case — that Cha Dohyeon is a man guaranteed for the big time. His skill structure is unreal, and he's aimed himself in exactly the right direction. He's also a treasure of a man who walked into Jeju on his own two feet — the very island Climbers quietly avoid — so treat him well, keep the trouble away. Fighting!"