Chapter 15
Chapter 15
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: New Hope
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After the press conference, Meteor Guild and Han Yu Seong's standing had plummeted to rock bottom.
The guild had shut its doors tight, with only the bare minimum personnel coming and going.
Time passed, leaving roughly four weeks until the tower's collapse.
Every three months, the tower's ceiling had to be pierced, but none of the major guilds had issued any statements.
Now, at last, the major guilds were obligated to report their progress rates.
"What about White Tiger Guild?"
"We're still stuck at the 'Frozen Ice Wall'."
The 62nd floor was a frigid highland plateau.
Cold snaps and blizzards made even movement a challenge.
Even after dealing with all the monsters and the freezing temperatures to reach the boss room door, it remained firmly sealed.
Commonly known as the 'Frozen Ice Wall'.
A thick wall of ice harder than steel blocked the entrance to the boss.
It wouldn't shatter under Iron Fist's punches, nor melt under So Seori's flames in her Dragon Humanization form.
"Then what about Meteor Guild?"
"......"
With no response, someone who looked like a secretary approached the chairman on the monitor to explain the situation.
Meteor Guild hadn't shown up to the meeting despite it being mandatory. No wonder one screen had been blank.
"I see. Then next..."
The other major guilds gave similar responses afterward.
The last was Wolverine Guild.
Wolverine Guild had always focused more on artifacts and research than high-floor climbs.
No one held out any hope. They all expected the same answer.
"Our situation is a bit different."
"?"
"Wolverine Guild?"
Though it was a major guild, the others tended to subtly look down on Wolverine for not pushing hard on climbs.
Not climbing meant they "couldn't" or were "weak."
Of course, So Seori didn't give a damn about that sort of thing.
"It's just a possibility, but guild member Iru Ri's new skill looks like it could work against the Frozen Ice Wall."
"Iru Ri—you mean the Little Saintess?"
"Yes. As I said, it's just a possibility."
Being a video conference, the other guild masters' faces appeared immediately.
Some sneered, some showed disbelief, some suspicion.
Every expression was negative.
Only Chairman Kim Seok Hyun took her words seriously.
"What's Iru Ri's current highest floor?"
"Chairman, you're not seriously buying this, are you?"
The Divine Beast Guild master 'Nana' finally couldn't hold back and spoke up.
"Iru Ri's a support-class sorceress. She's probably just gotten some self-defense attack spell and thinks it'll work, but the Frozen Ice Wall isn't that easy."
His tone was a bit aggressive, but the other guild masters nodded in agreement.
Of course, it was undeniable that Iru Ri was an exceptional sorceress and talent.
"No matter how special her Grimoire class is, how's a support sorceress supposed to break the Frozen Ice Wall?"
It was a valid point, so no one stepped up to argue against Divine Beast Guild's master.
"It has merit."
The chairman wore his usual mild smile.
"Why not hear her out first? We can judge then. Wolverine Guild master?"
The chairman neatly defused the tension and moved the meeting forward.
"Iru Ri is currently tackling the 60th floor. We expect her to reach the 62nd within two weeks at the latest."
"Two weeks is basically the deadline. If we fail, we'll have no choice but to hire mercenaries."
Iru Ri had been parked on the 58th floor for about half a year. Her lacking physical abilities and lack of offense made clearing the 'Sinking Swamp'—that is, the 58th floor—too risky.
"Still, it sounds like you cleared the swamp at least."
Bang!
"How is that even possible?"
The excited shout of the Divine Beast Guild master slamming his desk carried over the speakers.
The 58th floor was known as the supporters' graveyard.
The boss, Baba Yaga, nullified all support skills, was immune to debuffs, and even stole supporters' spells to use them herself.
Taking a supporter there wasn't much different from running a three-man party. If anything, it ramped up the difficulty.
That was why even high-floor supporters tended to park on the 58th.
It was also why Iru Ri had been endlessly looping the second string and highway floors lately.
"Please sit down for now."
At the chairman's restraint, the Divine Beast Guild master quietly took his seat.
His expression suggested even he was surprised by his own outburst.
"As you all know, Iru Ri's new spell is an attack type. We haven't fully disclosed it yet, but its penetration is quite impressive. As evidence..."
So Seori finally revealed the true nature of Iru Ri's new spell in the meeting.
"She one-shot the 51st floor boss, the Superalloy Mechanic Troll."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Iru Ri's private waiting room.
"Huff... huff."
Iru Ri collapsed into her chair with her exhausted body.
Her face was smudged black from the recent frequent climbs.
Nearly every floor had a 24-hour time limit.
High floors—even ones with known info—weren't cleared in one go but tackled over at least two attempts.
It was to optimize routes and conserve as much stamina as possible before the boss fight.
On days they didn't clear, the standard was to spend the full 24 hours in the tower until failure kicked them out.
Escape stones were too pricey to use every time.
"Ugh, so tired."
She pulled out her phone to search for Meteor Guild articles.
There was nothing she was looking for—just mockery and fabricated stories.
"Whatcha looking at?"
"Eek!"
She whipped her head toward the voice. So Seori was leaning against the wall, watching her—had no idea when she'd arrived.
"You scared me."
She glared at Wisph, but the fairy pretended ignorance and fluttered about.
Sneaking up on Iru Ri was incredibly hard.
Wisph detected everything in advance and alerted her.
So Seori just wasn't hostile, so no reaction.
"Meteor Guild articles? Pfft."
So Seori snickered at a meme of Han Yu Seong's face.
"Don't just peek at a girl's phone."
"I'm a boy too?"
"Sure you are."
Iru Ri kept scrolling through other articles.
"See? Told ya. Han Yu Seong would never team up with a grimoire for some hoho fun. That guy's been..."
"Moon Byul."
"Huh?"
Iru Ri turned to So Seori and repeated it.
"Not the grimoire—Moon Byul."
"...Right."
So Seori knew exactly why Iru Ri was searching Meteor Guild articles.
The enigmatic man living inside the grimoire: Moon Byul.
Iru Ri was still waiting for their reunion.
So Seori knew she'd been tracking his whereabouts even after Han Yu Seong's press conference.
She didn't know why Iru Ri still anticipated meeting him.
But she could tell Iru Ri's current state wasn't from climb fatigue—it was from parting with him.
Parting? A bit odd phrasing, but anyway.
So So Seori had prepared a gift.
"Wanna go meet him?"
Iru Ri blinked, not grasping the sudden words.
"Suddenly? Who?"
"Who else..."
So Seori's lips curved up slowly.
"Obviously not the grimoire—Moon Byul."
Her dejected expression gradually lit up with life.
So Seori still didn't get it. Why she craved that reunion so badly.
Truth be told, Iru Ri didn't fully either. How to put it.
Maybe because he looked so lonely living in that grimoire. She didn't want to leave him alone.
When she talked to him—who seemed expressionless—ever so subtly...
Really subtly, his face turned more human.
The faint rise in his voice pitch, like he anticipated their next meeting.
Moon Byul seemed devoid of emotion on the surface, but having spoken to him directly, she could sense his feelings plainly.
It was probably profound loneliness.
Someone who somehow seemed impossible to abandon.
Definitely scary, but...
Since their last meeting, she'd endlessly replayed it in her mind.
Terrifying at the time, yet comforting too.
Inhuman in appearance, but those emotions were utterly human.
To Iru Ri, he seemed constantly striving to escape the grimoire.
She was curious. What exactly was he?
Moon Byul was undoubtedly dangerous. Did that mean he should be locked in the grimoire forever?
Iru Ri thought if he had to live in a book for that reason alone, it'd be tragic.
Come to think of it, he hadn't done anything wrong yet, shown no malice.
Among the people she'd met, he ranked pretty high on the gentleman scale.
His power was scary, but he wasn't.
Iru Ri struggled to put these tangled feelings into words. What she thought, how she saw him.
So she figured she'd know once they met again.
'Gotta thank him too.'
Thanks to the skill he'd gifted her, her standing in the guild had soared even higher.
Commonly called the Wife Laser.
Leader Kim Seok Hyun had joked it was like a laser from a wife waiting at home, and the nickname stuck.
Wonder what kind of person she was married to.
Anyway, thanks to the 'Wife Laser,' she was off second string and on the special team, actively updating her high floor.
She believed the power Moon Byul gave her—not Wife...—would pierce even the Frozen Ice Wall.
But first things first.
"Of course we're going to meet him!"
"Huff huff."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Etoile's research lab.
In front of Moon Byul sat a dummy doll identical to him.
Scattered on the floor were magic stone fragments that had lost their light.
"Hmm."
Moon Byul channeled the energy flowing from his true body into the dummy.
But the energy slipped past the dummy like water hitting an obstacle.
"Perfect."
After some trial and error, he'd made a dummy that completely contained his energy—no leaks via the magic stones.
Now, people wouldn't sense anything inhuman about him at a glance.
He'd used 45 magic stones.
Far more than expected. Many parts had uneven star power distribution, so he'd discarded chunks.
He'd solved one issue for venturing outside: the body problem.
"Really... soon."
All that remained was upgrading the outside-linked rift from window to door level and severing his link to the grimoire.
The rift could be handled with time, but the grimoire link was the problem.
From what he'd checked externally, the grimoire and Moon Byul's soul were tangled in a complex web.
One grimoire, one soul.
The grimoire and I are two yet one, one yet two.
That was why he couldn't stray far from the grimoire outside.
Souls have a tendency to seek wholeness.
Sending part of his true body into the dummy was, simply put, splitting his soul.
Over time, it had to return to the grimoire.
"There must be a way."
The dummy was to appear more perfectly human outside.
Widening the rift was to let his whole self—not just part—pass through.
Someday, he'd put his entire self into the dummy and step out in his real body, not remotely.
Without the dummy, his energy would make it hard to pass as human. Needed another way for that.
Finally, severing the link was to cut ties with this damn grimoire once and for all.
With a wave of his hand, the lightless magic stones on the floor crumbled to sand and vanished.
"More than that, Han Yu Seong isn't calling."
Work was done. Just settle the magic stone value and leave.
Teach him a useful spell or two to wrap up the deal. Moon Byul knew tons of practical magic.
Still, better to part on good terms. Easier on the mind.
No more dealings with him anyway. Time to visit Iru Ri instead. She had a knack for putting people at ease.
Plus, she was his only acquaintance right now. Honestly, nowhere else to go.
"Oh yeah, gotta tweak a spell to suit her, wake up those comatose folks too."
Moon Byul realized he actually had quite a bit to do outside.
Until then, tweaking the rift formula would fill the time perfectly.
The rift was gradually expanding with effort. Meaning, more time he could spend outside.
Even if it fully became a door, the link would force return to the grimoire eventually—but active time outside would skyrocket.
Then soon, he could wander with his grimoire tucked into the dummy.
To someone who understood his state, it'd look like a person drilling a hole in their head, pulling out their brain, and carrying it around—but whatever.
"Doesn't look that gross."
Should be fine.