006

With the Tower entry looming, I threw myself into gathering information.

In other words, I spent my time rummaging through Hunter Forum.

Old posts from Hunter Forum.

There was almost no information on the middle floors and above, but if you limited yourself to the low floors, there were quite a few posts worth using. They were relics from the Tower’s early days.

Back when hunters didn’t just see dollar signs the way they do now.

In the Tower’s early days, climbers had gone up with a sense of duty, earning points and bringing them back.

After all, they were told that fifty million lives depended on them.

How could they not feel responsible?

But as time passed, one by one, people gave up or got comfortable.

And before long, most hunters had become the kind who made easy, safe money on the low floors—

the so-called low-floor parking rice-eaters.

Still, back in the day, Hunter Forum had plenty of people who took Tower climbing seriously.

Thanks to that, if you dug through the old posts, you could still get some pretty solid information on the low floors and the very beginning of the middle floors.

Anyway.

I skimmed the posts quickly and came to a conclusion.

The low floors don’t look that hard. At this rate, I might be able to clear one floor a day.

The Tower’s lower floors didn’t seem all that difficult.

No—honestly, they looked absurdly easy.

I’d already taken on Goblin Warriors and Goblin Shamans in the tutorial.

As long as I had this powerful thing called magic, I should be able to climb the low floors pretty fast.

I need to break through the low floors as quickly as possible. If things go south, I may have to emigrate.

This country had three months left in it.

For mine and my sister’s sake, I couldn’t not consider leaving.

And since hunters had to reach at least the middle floors to emigrate...

I was planning to blast through the low-floor section as fast as I could.

“I’ve got all the info I need for now...”

I backed out of the old notice board and clicked on the latest posts list.

A flood of certification posts was waiting there.

Hey, I’m a new hunter. Please take care of me.

I cleared the tutorial.

There are so many new hunters today, lol. Guess a lot of people really are dying.

I cleared Normal!!!

Here’s my tutorial review...

Just like yesterday, lots of new hunters were still pouring in today.

Then one post caught my eye.

I cleared Normal!!!

“Huh? Normal?”

Looks like a hunter who’d cleared the tutorial’s Normal difficulty had posted a certification thread.

Curious, I opened it.

I got Normal in the tutorial, and I barely made it through.

I seriously thought I was going to die.

The Goblin Archers kept firing arrows nonstop, and the dagger goblins kept relentlessly pressuring me from the left and right...

I got hit by two paralysis-poison arrows and took several cuts to my thigh from daggers.

But I never gave up and fought like hell until I finally survived and cleared it.

I went straight to the hospital after returning and got treatment...

Luckily, it wasn’t a serious injury, so I think I’ll recover soon.

People were reacting in all sorts of ways to the appearance of a hunter from the Normal tier.

They were jealous, trying to recruit them, curious...

Amid all the countless certification posts, this one was getting a lot of attention.

And then, out of nowhere, a childish impulse rose up in me.

So even something as ordinary as Normal gets ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this much praise. What if it was someone with Extreme Lunatic Hell Difficulty?

My fingers itched.

I gave in to the impulse and typed up a post.

“Heh heh.”

I snickered after posting it.

It sounded so ridiculous that I could already guess how people would react.

And sure enough, the response was exactly what I expected.

“Tsk, tsk. Fools. They can’t even recognize an extraordinary person standing right in front of them.”

My post got hit with every kind of insult ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠imaginable.

But I didn’t feel all that bad.

After all, wasn’t there a saying that hate was better than no response at all?

Wouldn’t it be better to get a ton of comments like this than to post something boring and let it vanish quietly into nothing?

And, honestly, there was a strange kind of fun to it.

I made these people mad! I can control their emotions!

The thrill of getting attention, of shaking other people’s feelings around.

And then I understood it.

Ah! So this is why people troll!

I’m not a troll, though!

I put a hand over my chest.

I was innocent.

I hadn’t lied to bait anyone.

I’d simply told the truth about what I’d personally experienced.

They just couldn’t believe it because I was such an exceptional being that I’d gone beyond common sense.

Anyway.

“I guess it’s about time I headed out.”

I got to my feet and began putting on my gear piece by piece.

First, I wore the rough woven clothes, then pulled the leather armor over them.

A one-handed sword went on my left hip.

A dagger on my right thigh.

I slung a large leather pack onto my back and tightened the laces on my combat boots.

And once I’d firmly gripped my beloved staff, I was ready to go.

I murmured under my breath.

“Tower entry.”

Flash!

A blaze of light wrapped around my body.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

The light faded.

I slowly opened my eyes.

What met my gaze was a scene I’d never seen before.

The inside of a dark cave.

Torches hung sparsely on the walls, casting a faint glow over the surroundings.

The air was cold, and the occasional drip of water from the stalactites tickled my ears.

It was exactly the same as the description in the guide for Floor 1.

So if I find the exit and head out, that clears Floor 1.

Floor 1 of the Tower was simple.

Find the exit portal hidden somewhere in this underground cave and escape.

I glanced back over my shoulder.

There was a portal behind me.

A return portal.

So there really is a return portal like they said. If things get bad, I can run.

Unlike the tutorial, the Tower had a return portal at the starting point of each floor.

That meant I could stop the run and return to reality whenever I wanted.

That made me feel a lot better.

If a fight went south, I could just bolt back to the starting point and retreat to the real world.

Of course, you could only enter the Tower once a day.

And once the day passed, the monsters would respawn and I’d have to start clearing the floor all over again.

Still, compared to having no escape route at all, wasn’t this already a huge relief?

Just thinking about the tutorial, where I’d been trapped and nearly killed without being able to move, still made my teeth grind.

Anyway.

All right, let’s ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠go.

Step, step.

I started walking slowly.

And immediately, I noticed something strange.

A peculiar sensation washed over me.

It feels like I’m reading the area with some sense other than sight.

Underground caves are dark.

Incredibly dark.

There were torches on the walls, sure, but they weren’t very bright, and the cave’s uneven shape created plenty of shadowed spots, making it hard to keep track of the surroundings properly.

But I could see the entire area around me.

Even the stalactites overhead, the shadows behind the cave’s twisted walls, and the paths beyond the corners my eyes couldn’t quite reach.

It was as clear as if I were looking at my own palm.

If I had to put it into words, it felt like a three-dimensional map of the space was being drawn inside my head.

Curious, I shut my eyes.

I was startled.

What the hell? I can still see everything with my eyes closed!

Even with my eyes shut, the surroundings remained vividly clear.

I made a guess.

Maybe it’s because I became a mage? Like reading the mana in the air to sense the space around me...

Back when I was deep into fantasy novels, I’d read a few with descriptions like that.

The classic trope where a mage reads the mana in the atmosphere to perceive the space around them.

Come to think of it, I’d had a similar experience in the tutorial too.

I’d pinpointed the Goblins’ positions in the dark with perfect accuracy.

Unlike in the real world, the Tower was rich in mana, so maybe that was what made this possible.

Either way, it was a good thing for me.

“At least I won’t get ambushed in the dark.”

And I wouldn’t trip over rocks and eat dirt either.

I shrugged and kept walking.

How long had I gone like that?

-Keruk. Keruk!

I heard a Goblin cry out.

The distance was... about 30 meters. One of them.

It was coming from the right side of the main passage ahead.

I prepared my magic.

Fireball. Five of them.

Whoooosh!

Five Fireballs blossomed above my staff and began to orbit in a ring.

A moment later, I saw a Goblin step out from around the corner.

Without hesitation, I fired.

-Ssssssssssh!

The trail of the Fireball cut through the darkness.

-Keruk?

The Goblin let out a startled cry at the blazing sphere that flew toward it the second it rounded the corner.

The Fireball smashed into its head.

There was an explosion.

-KWAAAAAAAAAAANG—!

The blast echoed thunderously through the cave interior.

“Ack! My ears!”

For a second, I felt like my eardrums were about to rupture.

This was way too loud.

Just as I was flustered by the unexpectedly violent noise—

-Kerururuk! Keruk!

-Kerururuk!

-Kieeeeeek!

The Goblins’ shrill shrieking started ringing out from everywhere around me.

Patapatapatapat!

Tat-tat-tat-tat!

Then came the sound of feet rushing in from all directions.

The explosion had pulled aggro, and every Goblin in the area was charging straight at me.

I was a little taken aback.

Ah... so Fireball has a downside like this.

All that noisy blasting would draw a ton of attention.

But I wasn’t actually nervous.

“Honestly, I feel like I could smash apart however many Goblins come at me.”

I’d already one-shot both a Goblin Warrior and a Goblin Shaman.

A normal Goblin was just cannon fodder.

Still, detonating the whole cave every time I dealt with a single mob was a little excessive.

And I didn’t really want to keep hearing giant explosions echoing through the cave either.

Should I modify the spell? Cut the firepower down to a tenth and boost the efficiency instead.

On the spot, I started rearranging the Blue Dots.

I drastically shrank the overall size of the formation and carefully adjusted the distance between each particle.

That cut mana consumption way down.

Which meant...

-Fwoooossssssh...

The Fireball spell, which had previously maxed out at five spheres, could now be cast in a staggering fifty.

Fifty... that’s a lot.

Fifty tiny Fireballs spun in a spiral above my staff.

Each one was small, but together they had a certain appeal of their own.

Just as I finished modifying the spell—

-Kerururuk!

-Kyaaaak!

-Kieeeeeek!

The Goblins started swarming into view.

A green tide surged in behind the Goblin I’d just brought down.

There had to be around thirty of them.

Perfectly sized to test a new spell.

I leveled my staff.

“Fire.”

And then.

The Fireballs began streaking out in a continuous chain.

-Papapapapapapapapapap!

Like falling meteors.

Or like tracer rounds from a machine gun in the army.

The swarm of Fireballs shot toward the Goblins.

-Ke, keruk?!

The front-most Goblin froze at the sudden barrage.

It must’ve realized something had gone very, very wrong.

But by then, it was too late to run.

-Pew pew pew pew pew pew pew pew!

The shower of tiny Fireballs began tearing through the Goblin horde.

Small explosions burst nonstop.

Every time one went off, a Goblin’s head exploded, limbs snapped off and flew away, and torsos were punched clean through.

A mist of blood billowed up, and chunks of goblin flesh scattered in every direction.

What did it feel like to spray a heavy-caliber machine gun like this?

-Kerururuk!

-Kyaaaak!

-Keruk...

Crunch! Pfft! Thwack! Splash...

The Goblin group collapsed one after another.

The thick smell of blood hit me hard.

I grimaced.

“Ugh... maybe I should’ve just gone with ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one big blast instead. This is grotesque.”

If I’d blasted them with high output, they would’ve been blown to pieces and scattered apart entirely.

But because limbs and guts were left more or less intact, they’d been flung everywhere in an even nastier state.

Ugh. Looks like meat was off the menu again today.

-Keruk...

The last Goblin died and dropped to the ground.

Then, as if the chaos from moments ago had been a lie, silence settled over the cave.

I trudged over and started gathering the spoils.

Goblin daggers sell for thirty thousand won each, right?

I bent down and picked them up one by one.

Some of the daggers were still clutched in severed arms that dangled there, and those were especially disgusting.

Shit...

Peeling open each bloody hand and prying the dagger free was seriously revolting, but I forced myself to endure it and packed them away.

This is all money! Money! I have to take every last piece!

I recovered every dagger and stuffed them into my bag.

The once-empty pack quickly grew heavy.

“Now let’s find the exit.”

Finding it was easy enough.

The Goblins in the area had all been wiped out by that fight, so no more enemies appeared.

After about ten minutes of wandering through the cave, I eventually found a mass of light in one corner—the portal.

I threw myself into it without hesitation.

A blaze of light wrapped around my body.