Chapter 9
Chapter 9
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: New Power
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Three days had passed since Moon Byul and Iru Ri's question-and-answer exchange.
KABOOM!
The surroundings shook with a deafening roar.
"Holy Position!"
"Huff... huff..."
Nicknamed the "Little Saintess," Iru Ri activated her spell, and a massive magic circle bloomed across the floor.
"I'll finish it in 10 seconds, Ruri!"
Kim Seung Cheol, the team's leader and tank, charged forward at a speed hard to believe for a human, hefting his enormous shield.
The 51st floor of the tower, dubbed the "Highway." The reason they were tackling it again was simple: the boss had high health, but it was a straight-line course—one of the shortest in the entire tower.
In the first place, 99% of climbers had given up on full ascents, sustaining themselves by "parking" and harvesting magic stones.
Only the top 1%—the raiding parties—were hailed as heroes and pressed on with the climb.
Not everyone could be a hero, after all.
Iru Ri's party was locked in battle with the mid-tier boss, the Mechanic Ogre. They'd already cleared nearly half of it.
GRRROOAAAR!
The Mechanic Ogre toppled from Kim Seung Cheol's "Shield Tackle" skill, letting out a agonized roar.
"Now!"
"Lightning Arrow."
From the rear, attack mage Choi Jin Ah immobilized the Mechanic Ogre's movements.
In that instant, melee dealer Park Han Su shot forward like a bolt of lightning, targeting the core in the center of its chest.
'Tiger Slash.'
As the core was bisected, the Mechanic Ogre's power supply cut off, and it ground to a complete halt.
"Whew, did that take 10 seconds?"
"No. A little over 8 seconds."
Iru Ri checked the time as she released her skill.
Her area-of-effect spell "Holy Position" was a cheat-level support skill that massively boosted the party's attack power, defense, and physical abilities.
But it had one major drawback.
"Huff... huff..."
"It's fine. I've still got plenty of mana left."
It caused extreme mana drain proportional to its duration, making it inefficient to sustain.
"You're already wiped out after just that short burst?"
"Enough. Thanks to Ruri, we took down a boss-level monster in record time. Right, Saintess?"
Choi Jin Ah tapped her staff against the ground in reprimand, but leader Kim Seung Cheol swiftly redirected the conversation.
"Yes, thank you."
She basically belonged to the Wolverine Guild's second-string party.
If the first-string party was the raiding team conquering the tower's peak, her party targeted already-cleared floors for support and magic stone mining.
Among them, support specialist Iru Ri was the one most often called up to the first string.
Quickly clearing conquered floors versus pioneering unknown ones carried a huge difference in risk.
The first-string party sought her out whenever they needed buffs or status recovery.
Despite her popularity, she remained second-string due to her clear limitations.
Weak defense and a lack of attack skills.
Support spells that guzzled massive amounts of mana.
She was a support-type sorceress who needed protection and couldn't cast often.
"So what good is that? She turns to mush after one skill, and runs dry when we actually need her."
"Jealous again?"
"Wh-Who said I'm jealous! Of a mage with zero attack skills."
"Sorceress, not mage."
Offended by Park Han Su's words, Choi Jin Ah's face flushed as she snapped back at him.
Before the mood soured further, Kim Seung Cheol stepped in to calm them.
"Alright, alright, we're not done yet—so no more chit-chat!"
As always, he deftly managed the atmosphere.
'Born leader, through and through.'
Iru Ri gazed at Kim Seung Cheol with genuine admiration. Not everyone had that knack for seizing control of a room.
'Does that mean Mr. Moon Byul has leader potential too?'
The vibes were a bit different, but his command of any situation was on another level.
Maybe it was because Moon Byul left such a strong impression. Even in the tower, thoughts of him popped into her head now and then.
"Look at her. Spacing out in the tower. Leader, don't you have something to say?"
"Yeah, Jin Ah's right on that. Everyone, focus up."
"She just re-signed recently, and this is how she acts. Unbelievable."
Unable to ignore Jin Ah's prodding, Seung Cheol chimed in, but she didn't let up.
"...Yes!"
She answered and glanced at Choi Jin Ah, but the mage avoided her eyes.
She hadn't always treated me like that.
She used to follow me around, calling "Ruri-na," "Ruri-na" all sweet-like.
'When was that again?'
Back when Iru Ri was a low-tier support mage—it had to be over two years ago.
Come to think of it, Choi Jin Ah had been an A-rank elemental mage even then, but she'd doted on little D-rank me especially.
That all changed two years ago when the Grimoire of Light appeared, rocketing me to S-rank support in one go. Things naturally drifted apart after that.
'I thought at first it was just ads and outside gigs... but no.'
Grimoires were rare artifacts. With only a handful in the world, Korea boasted three sorceresses who wielded them.
Other countries even envied Korea for having three— populous China had just one.
Ah, and with Mr. Moon Byul, that makes four.
Anyway, a sorceress joining the Wolverine Guild was big news worldwide. She started doing ads and events for the guild, becoming a celebrity overnight.
'How does it feel to be called the Little Saintess?'
'You were originally D-rank—don't you think jumping to S-rank on one grimoire is an overblown rating?'
'Rumors say you stole the grimoire—is it true?'
It was all uncomfortable, unpleasant schedules. If not for the guild master's requests, she wouldn't have shown up at all.
'Whoa, it's the Saintess! Sign this, please!'
'I love you, Saintess! Marry me!'
All unpleasant... no, not unpleasant exactly? Anyway, every bit of it felt off.
After slogging through the endless wave of busy schedules, she'd approach Choi Jin Ah in the guild to talk, only to find the mage not even looking at her.
'She was looking at the "Little Saintess" blabbing to the press.'
Why the cold shoulder? What did I do wrong? Even confronting her got sharp "nothing to say" responses.
She kept ignoring her, so chances to talk dried up completely.
Their relationship had soured beyond repair.
"Hold. Ahead—multiple Mechanic Goblins."
Park Han Su, with his sharper senses, began gauging the enemies.
"Eighteen of them."
"That's a lot. But at least they're Mechanic Goblins—good call, Han Su."
"Oppa Seung Cheol, mind if I step up?"
Kim Seung Cheol's face lit up with question marks at Iru Ri's sudden offer.
"Step up? What do you mean, Ruri?"
"I've got an attack skill now."
Truth be told, even Iru Ri didn't know exactly what skill it was.
She hadn't tried it yet, after all.
Its power, the type of magic—it was all unknown.
All she knew was the mana and formula felt offensive in nature.
Spells that surfaced through experience in the tower were one thing, but this was a spell Mr. Moon Byul had created for her—she wouldn't know until she used it.
'No idea how that's even possible, but...'
Grimoires didn't work that way to begin with. The caster's mana flowed through the grimoire as a medium to manifest spells.
New spells came from gaining experience in the tower, expanding magical knowledge or insights, which the grimoire then displayed.
The actual spellcasting was done by the sorceress.
Iru Ri had never heard of storing and activating spells in a grimoire like this.
She'd never even imagined it was possible before meeting Moon Byul.
"I don't know the power either, so leave just one for me."
"A new attack spell from you? Now I'm curious too."
In the end, the leader ruled that one Mechanic Goblin was hers.
"Kieek!"
The last goblin left seemed to wail over its fallen comrades.
"Ruri, now's your chance."
"Pfft, it's gotta be some weak self-defense thing."
Ignoring Choi Jin Ah's jab, she stepped forward and opened her grimoire to the page where Moon Byul had inscribed the formula.
Her mana flowed through the grimoire, tracing the intricate circuits and activating the incantation as written.
'About half of half the mana for Holy Position.'
Perfect for her low mana pool.
"Rage Bedraga Nemoha."
A strange incantation none of them had ever heard.
FWOOOM!
As she chanted the formula, a massive magic circle materialized before her.
"What?"
Everyone, her included, gawked at the enormous circle. In the narrow tunnel-like dungeon, its intricate patterns nearly filled the space.
Then, a laser matching the circle's size blasted from it.
VROOOOOM!
A car-horn blast of a laser sound erupted, unleashing tremendous wind pressure.
"Reflect Ball Shield!"
Startled, Kim Seung Cheol summoned a spherical barrier enveloping the team—everyone but the caster, Iru Ri.
The horn-like roar lasted about five seconds before fading. Kim Seung Cheol released his skill.
Crackle, crackle.
A burning smell and scorching heat filled the air.
"Wh-What the...?"
"Whoa, insane."
"Ruri did that?"
Before their eyes lay the dungeon melted in the exact shape of the laser beam—and Iru Ri, standing frozen in place.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙ [Boss - 'Superalloy Mechanic Troll' has died.] [51st Floor clear conditions met.] [Returning with rewards in 30 seconds.] The tower clear message popped up for everyone moments later.
Her attack had swept all the way to the boss room, one-shotting it.
"Huff...?"
"......"
Surprisingly, she was the most shocked—but she said nothing until the 30-second return timer expired.
'What the heck did you give me, Mr. Moon Byul?!'
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The corridors of Etoile.
A week was a short time.
He was hurriedly cultivating the bananas, apples, grapes, and such that he'd received as gifts.
"Nitrogen fixation's done, and the soil's got plenty of Star Power for other energies."
Crunch.
He sprinkled water from a black watering can while munching an apple.
"Weirdly, stuff grown with magic just doesn't taste as good."
He'd mastered magic, but direct plant cultivation was still full of unknowns.
"What's the fundamental difference between magic-grown plants and ones ripened under the sun?"
Even if Moon Byul could peer into higher dimensions or sense things beyond human perception.
Alone, even growing common plants was a challenge.
This was humanity's greatness.
The endless transmission of information across timelines and the advance of civilization.
Moon Byul couldn't make the delicious apple in his hand, but humanity could.
They'd selectively bred bananas for easy eating, packed them with nutrition, and mass-produced them as food.
'Come to think of it, humanity's already been using magic all along.'
To Moon Byul, those feats were true "magic."
A lone human in this universe-mimicking space had his limits.
Because he was alone.
For example, the tea he often drank was just a magical mimicry of a plant from a star whose recovery effects he'd learned about—never seen the real thing.
Claiming it was identical to the actual plant would be a stretch, even after pouring in serious effort over long years.
Humanity, with the same info, would already mass-produce something tastier and more effective.
"Still, I'm worried."
What he'd given Iru Ri was a low-tier laser attack spell.
Considering her mana capacity, he'd optimized it for efficiency and power—but would it cut it?
In the tower climbed by Awakeners, would such a flashy low-tier spell even work?
'Plus, she's a climber tackling pretty high floors.'
Crunch.
He wondered if it would truly help.
Thinking back, maybe a proper self-defense spell would have been better.
Something like teleportation magic or a silent kill spell.
He'd fixated too much on raw power-per-mana and overlooked the finer details.
"Over a century alive, and this stuff's still tricky. I'll ask her when we meet in a few days."
At that moment, Moon Byul didn't know.
That he wouldn't see her at the promised time.