Levels Soaring

They stepped onto the 58th floor of the Tower of Despair.

A place of dense, choking jungle, thick with poison-attribute monsters.

"The bushes are moving!"

A terrified Momo dove behind Jinhyuk's legs.

Jinhyuk's own face twisted in a grimace. Poison types meant reptiles — snakes, centipedes, frogs. He really could not stand this kind of thing.

"No need to even set foot in there, sir! I'll blast the whole place to smithereens!"

Kancho hauled out a minigun.

Not a bad call. Even if he couldn't kill every last monster, he could at least mow the jungle flat.

"Might I take the van? I wish to test the blade."

Kancho, who had been winding up for a charge, snapped to attention at once.

"Following Commander Seira's orders! SIR, YES SIR!"

After a thunderous salute, the Vice Captain of the Yoddle Rangers fell in beside Jinhyuk. Elia and Darc were still chewing on strips of jerky, and neither looked remotely interested in fighting.

"Go on, then."

Seira put a little distance between herself and the others and drew the Lightning Sword Raven.

Current coiled around the blade and danced along its master's frame.

Sick as hell.

Lightning. Thunder. Right up there with fire as one of the two attributes every man secretly wanted. Seira gazed quietly down at the sword, still a little unused to it.

In that brief pause, the monsters began to show themselves through the undergrowth. Reptiles, just as expected. Among them was an anaconda a good thirty feet long.

"Ssssshhh."

Seira drew a light breath and fixed her eyes on what lay ahead.

A savage viridian current burst from the blade with a vicious crackle. Monsters that had drifted too close blackened and burned on the spot. She had not even swung yet. Sweat beaded on both of Jinhyuk's palms at the thought of what that kind of power meant.

"Hah."

Seira let the breath go and swept the greatsword in a wide, decisive arc.

Viridian blade-light sprayed into the sky. The monsters beneath it painted question marks in the air. Far from cutting them down, the aura had merely skimmed past and gone.

Perhaps they took it for an opening. The ones that had been lumbering forward picked up speed, and just as they drew breath to roar—

Hundreds of thunderbolts began to fall.

Following the path the blade-light had carved, the rain of lightning poured down in a rapid, relentless cascade. Peal after peal of thunder hammered their ears without mercy.

"Waaaaah!"

"I'm goin' down, sir!"

The very earth underfoot heaved. It felt as though heaven and earth themselves were pitching and rolling. Even as Jinhyuk scooped Kancho and Momo up into his arms, he never took his eyes off the front.

Where'd they all go?

The teeming monsters had vanished without a trace. The jungle that had blocked their view was gone with them — scorched clean, as if it had never been there, leaving a wide-open field of vision.

Jinhyuk clapped ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a hand over his mouth. If he hadn't, a scream would have torn out of him.

His level had always sat relatively high compared to the floors he was climbing. Clearing a single floor usually just nudged the experience bar and that was the end of it. Five levels at once meant the bonus experience from Height Matching had blown past the tower-clear experience itself.

Kancho had gained three. Darc one. Momo two. Elia one as well. Compared to how the experience bars had barely inched forward through the last few floors, this was an outstanding haul.

"Whoa! My level just jumped?"

"It would seem our growth has quickened."

"The clay's shapin' up at insane speed, sir!"

"Momo's hands got faster too! Look at this! Zip-zip!"

Jinhyuk explained the Height Matching trait to his delighted companions.

"I believe they call this a trickle-down effect?"

"Nice one, Elia. You really are sharp."

"It's nothing special, you know? I am the Alchemist of the Stars, after all."

"What's a granny gettin' all puffed up for just 'cause she knows everything?!"

Elia and Kancho bickered the way they always did. This time, there was no need to break it up. They dropped the argument on their own and turned to look the same way.

Seira was walking quietly back, having swept the floor in a single breath. Every pair of eyes began to shine as they settled on her.

"Why do you all look at me so?"

Perhaps the attention sat poorly with her. She hesitated a little as she asked. Whether she liked it or not, Jinhyuk and the others only stared harder.

It was a look of respect. Of awe.

The Perk Box was something he looked forward to no matter how many times he saw it. It spun for a long while, then stopped on an emblem he had never seen before.

Four pictures appeared before his eyes. A sword, a shield, an arrow, and a sparkling hand.

"Hmm."

Jinhyuk rubbed his chin and studied them. They had called it an archetype, but the pictures were painfully vague. The last one especially. The first three he could roughly read as a melee dealer, a tank, and a ranged dealer. The hand, if you took it for a gesture of prayer, looked a bit like a healer — and also a bit like it wasn't. Hard to say.

He glanced back at the companions lined up behind him. A melee dealer so broken it was almost unfair. A friend who, even if the role sat a little differently on him, more than covered the tanking. A ranged dealer who worked in carpet-bombing and alchemy. And a chubby little all-rounder who handled most things neatly without anyone having to ask.

If he had to pick the class they didn't already have, it was that last picture.

Hope it's a priest type.

Elia made an excellent pharmacist, but she was not a healer born to the work. Having someone dedicated on hand for emergencies would be a real comfort.

Jinhyuk's brow furrowed. The name was every bit as vague as the picture.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"NOOO!!"

A sudden wail. Momo, who had somehow gotten all the way out there, collapsed in a heap.

"MOMOOO!"

He sprinted over. Momo held out a limp hand. In it was the blackened trunk of a snake.

"They all got roasted! This one too! And that one!"

"Ah."

Momo's collecting ran on a different mechanism from the system's automatic byproduct drops. She butchered the corpses herself and harvested higher-grade materials by hand. Every last body on the 58th floor had been charred black by the lightning.

"I shall refrain from using lightning henceforth."

Seira crouched and patted Momo's back. Jinhyuk joined the consolation line and smiled.

"It's okay, Momo. Even if you pick up a little less, we can still eat all the good stuff we want."

"Really?!"

"Yeah. Forget already? We're making fifty billion a year."

"That's right!"

The moment she realized her gourmet life was in no danger, Momo brightened right back up.

"I'll at least grab whatever's still in one piece! Gotta sell 'em at Unnie's!"

"Okay."

Momo dashed off and launched into a high-speed harvest. Corpses turned to bare bone the instant her hands touched them. It was an impressive ability, and a savage one.

Once the collecting storm had run its course—

The humid jungle blurred and faded with the message. A clean wind began to blow again, and the beautiful green country of Wales unrolled before their eyes.

The thud of rotor blades drew Jinhyuk's gaze ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠upward. There was still more than an hour left until the appointed time. They must have come early to wait.

"Nnnngh."

Jinhyuk stretched until he was loose as a rag and watched the helicopter draw closer.

Time to go back. Back to Conwy Castle.

A high-rise in Tokyo.

Sato Tsubasa, a member of parliament for the Innovation Party, sat in her living room and stared at the television.

"What a circus. Absolute circus."

Most of the channels had scrapped their regular programming. In its place they were pouring out broadcasts about the Runner. The content ranged from specials on who the Runner was to programs singing the praises of the records he had carved into the Hall of Fame, but the story generating the most heat was the steel summit that had wrapped up that very day.

The United Kingdom imported more steel than any other country in Europe, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and that had made Britain the decision-maker at today's talks. The result they had put on the table had overturned every expectation, and the whole world was talking about it.

"Bullshit."

Tsubasa shook her head. If that message had not appeared in the middle of the talks, there would have been no reason whatsoever to raise Korea's ceiling. Unlike China or Japan, Korea had nothing left to offer Britain.

"Serves them right."

She gave a short laugh and tipped her glass. Trade Minister Masaru, a lawmaker of the ruling party. If not for the Runner, he would have been praised for a brilliant negotiation. Now he was getting shredded for the single crime of coming in behind Korea.

"A being who overturns situations that look impossible... I like that."

She rolled the Runner's name across her tongue and started to tip the glass again — then stopped with her hand still in the air.

A flicker of déjà vu she could not quite place. Come to think of it, she had had a similar thought not long ago. The Yamaguchi-gumi, one of the yakuza organizations that represented Japan, had been wiped out, and the head of Hosaka had died. The pillar the ruling party had been leaning on had come down, and they had started to wobble. She had felt something like this then, too.

"...Am I reaching?"

Tsubasa thought it through, then picked up her phone.

"Have everyone assemble. We're going to Incheon International Airport."

Even if the hunch was excessive, it did not matter. She needed to follow the intuition that had surfaced and check it for herself — whether the Lingering Scent she had collected matched the Runner's.

"Hmm."

A low hum slipped from her as a smile touched her mouth. She rose from the sofa and murmured two small wishes.

That she would meet the owner of that lingering scent at Incheon International Airport.

And that the owner would, please, be the Runner.