Basilisk (2)

Even so, none of this would have been a problem until now. Ordinary Players would never have met this thing in the first place. It was a monster that appeared only when a special condition was met—every creature on Tower Floor 199 had to be wiped out within a week. No wonder it was this strong.

Strong, yes. But that's as far as it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠goes. The Basilisk's durability stat was immense, and yet no matter how tough it was, it could not win on defense alone. It tore furiously into the Bone Dragon's body and blasted petrification gas straight at Jin-soo.

The physical blows left wounds of every size across the Bone Dragon's hide, none of them fatal. The petrification gas was a real threat, but Shin Sua's Purification could wipe it away to nothing. And he had Purification of his own.

The Shadow Healer was dark-affinity and had no Purification skill at all. Even so, with only Jin-soo and Shin Sua casting it, they could shut down any attack that would actually kill. And if a summon took heavy damage, he could simply unsummon it. A force made entirely of Players could never have afforded that choice. Here, with every combatant except the two of them being a summon, it was the rational ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠one.

Even so, Jin-soo was startled. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠For a monster of Tower Floor 199, the Basilisk was absurdly tough. This thing will make an excellent tank. Petrifying breath and petrification gas alike would be lethal weapons turned on other monsters and Players.

Looks like I'm getting something far better than a Sand Worm. He had thought the Sand Worm was the finest prize Tower Floor 199 had to offer. He hadn't expected a treasure like this to be hidden away.

To claim it whole, he had to kill it as fast as he could. Jin-soo poured mana without stinting and drove it into his aura.

Crack. Slice. Thud.

"Kieeeek!"

Under the flurry of his strikes, the Basilisk thrashed and belched an even thicker cloud of petrification gas.

"Purification! Purification! Purification!"

But under the steady wash of Shin Sua's skill, the petrified flesh snapped back to its original form in an instant.

Almost over.

The Basilisk's neck hung in shreds. The wounds the Bone Dragon had torn into its back were splitting wider, and the Sand Worm had the hide of its underbelly a moment from ripping free entirely.

Then the Basilisk's mana surged, gathering fast around its maw.

One last struggle?

It seemed intent on unleashing its strongest weapon, the petrifying breath. But even the strongest weapon was useless if it never landed. Jin-soo was already set behind the Basilisk's neck. The Bone Dragon and the Sand Worm held its back and its belly, and the other summons were hammering its legs and torso. Open its mouth and fire, and there was still no one in the path of the blast.

Huh?

In that instant the mana gathering at its maw overflowed and began to run wild.

This bastard is forcing a mana overload on purpose.

A self-detonation. The instant Jin-soo flung himself clear, a thunderous blast tore the Basilisk's maw apart, and mana steeped in the curse of petrification burst outward in every direction.

"Jin-soo!"

Shin Sua had been wholly given to support from the rear. She startled and ran.

"I'm fine. It's dangerous here. Don't come."

His voice found her anyway.

"You're really okay?"

"Yeah."

Jin-soo answered calmly. He really was fine. The jolt, though, had been real—the explosion of curse-laden mana had hit hard.

What a pain.

Even with a tank's Guardian skill and a healer's Protection skill already cast, the armor on his lower body and on parts of both hands had turned to stone.

Purification.

Jin-soo cast Purification and released the stone.

Lost quite a few summons.

The Bone Dragon and the Sand Worm had taken only light damage. The others had not been so lucky—enough of them had been forcibly unsummoned that the losses were far from trivial.

I was going to take a full day to rest once we hit the Tower's 200th Floor anyway.

The drawback stung. Auto-hunting would stall until he could resummon the ones the blast had dismissed. Half a day at the outside, though. No great loss.

The Dragon Tooth Soldiers had the other summons shielding them with their bodies, too.

Thanks to that, the White Drake teeth and the Bone Dragon teeth had both come through unharmed.

The moment Jin-soo finished taking stock of the damage, system messages poured in like a flood.

A lot of them, sure.

Set a few skill books aside, and there was little among the rewards worth having.

Not even an Impossible Feat.

A monster on the Basilisk's level ought to have been acknowledged as out-of-spec and paid out at least one Impossible Feat. The rewards were stingy.

Well. The real reward is this thing. Army Summons. Army Summons.

Jin-soo cast the skill and drew the slain Basilisk's soul and lingering spirit back as a summon.

Bone ground against bone.

A black-and-white pair of Basilisks took shape before Jin-soo and lowered their heads.

The system definitely said I cleared Tower Floor 199. Nothing's changed.

He had hunted every monster in the mission zone and cleared it by extermination rather than survival. A clear, even so, was still a clear.

So survival missions don't send you up early just because you finished ahead of schedule.

Nothing for it but to wait.

May as well recover mana and stamina.

Nothing drastic was likely just from climbing to the Tower's 200th Floor, but you never knew, and it was better to leave nothing to chance. Time spent this way would also let his summons recover the mana they had burned, and shave down the resummon cooldown on the ones that had been forcibly dismissed.

Jin-soo and Shin Sua rested at ease. By the time their spent mana and stamina had fully returned, a system message rose.

"We're going up."

"Yeah. I wish the Tower's 200th Floor were the end. I have a feeling it won't be."

Shin Sua answered him with a bitter look.

Right. This isn't the end.

The Tower's 200th Floor was still only the lower reaches of the Tower.

Well. Only by my measure.

Lower, middle, and upper were nothing more than a personal classification, measured against the 2,222nd floor he had climbed before his Regression.

From the 200th floor on, a lot of this is new.

Until now, Jin-soo and the other people of Earth had competed only against Players drawn from the same dimension. From the Tower's 200th Floor onward, that changed. They would share one space and compete against Players who had come from other dimensions.

When the appointed moment arrived, a roaring wash of pure white light closed around Jin-soo and Shin Sua.

The moment they arrived on the Tower's 200th Floor, the system messages were there to greet Jin-soo.

Achievement secured, and the blessings grew.

The growth of the blessings had probably owed more to the simple fact that he had reached the Tower's 200th Floor than to the shortest-time achievement itself.

The real climb starts now.

Until he reached Tower Floor 300, every floor number contained a 2. For Jin-soo, simply setting foot on each floor was as good as receiving a special bonus.

"A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠newbie."

"Where are they from?"

"From the look of them—Earth, or Museong?"

"That cat and that crow. Summons?"

As ever, Players who had reached the Tower's 200th Floor ahead of them stood in a ring around the open ground.

"Why is their hair like that?"

Shin Sua stared at some of the people surrounding her, openly startled.

Most were not so different from people of Earth. A few, though, had hair in colors nature rarely granted—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, pink.

"That one has incredibly long ears, and they're beautiful. Oh—that one's tiny, and the beard is enormous. And that one has a tail."

She startled all over again at shapes she had never once seen in her life.

Arius Dimension types.

Arius was a dimension that could only be called a fantasy world, awash in aura and magic. Humans lived there alongside all manner of other races, whom people from Earth simply called elves, dwarves, and beastkin.

The Museong Dimension, too.

Museong amounted to a martial world, home to warriors trained in the internal arts. Its people were human only, and in appearance they were indistinguishable from East Asians.

Humans from the Arius Dimension and the Museong Dimension start at Floor 100.

Unlike the people of Earth, who arrived with no abilities at all, those of Arius and Museong already wielded power—aura and magic, internal arts and spellcraft—and their baseline physical ability was vastly superior. The moment they entered the Tower and awakened as Players, that aura, magic, internal arts, and spellcraft converted into high-level skills, and their exceptional physiques converted into high stats.

That's why they grow so much faster than people from Earth.

Earth's Players were dragged in at random, with nothing to their names. Every human from the Arius Dimension and the Museong Dimension, by contrast, was someone who already possessed a powerful body and a special ability.

The ones who were already strong back home grow at a pace all their own.

Grand Sword Masters and Archmages, martial artists of the Transformation Realm and Grand Sorcerers—their might had already struck the ceiling of their home dimensions, and there was almost no way left for them to grow stronger. Once they awakened as Players, that changed. Kill monsters, and level-ups would raise their stats and skill levels. They could shatter that ceiling and grow as strong as they pleased.

Not that the truly strong end up in the Tower very often to begin with.

Powerhouses on the level of Grand Sword Masters, Archmages, Transformation Realm martial artists, and Grand Sorcerers were so rare that even across an entire dimension they numbered only in the single or double digits. The overwhelming majority of those dragged into the Tower and awakened as Players had been, back home, low-rank knights, low-rank mages, low-rank martial artists, and low-rank sorcerers.

The Tower's 200th Floor is where Players from Earth, Arius, and Museong meet for the first time. It also means the System has judged that Players from Earth have grown enough to compete with those from Arius and Museong.

Judged coldly, though, among the Players of the three dimensions, those from Earth ranked lowest in raw power.

They were given more chances to build their strength, but most Players from Earth are already struggling just to survive.

From the start, the ranks from Arius and Museong included at least a few mid- to high-rank knights, mages, martial artists, and sorcerers. Their survival rate was bound to outstrip that of Players from Earth.

Every so often an Earth-born irregular shows up. Someone like me.

Cases like that were vanishingly rare.