Chapter 12
Chapter 12
Mad Black Mage's Tower Strategy
Chapter 12
An inn on the 2nd floor of the Tower.
"HWAAAM."
Seo-jin, who had been sleeping like a dead man, finally got up from bed when the sun was high in the midday sky.
‘How long did I sleep?’
Checking his status window, it seemed he had been unconscious for roughly two days.
Getting up from his spot, Seo-jin moved his body this way and that to check his condition.
His arm had lost quite a bit of swelling, but it was still blackened, and his body still felt heavy due to the burden on his mana circuit.
‘Is it because of the consecutive fierce battles right after regression?’
From now on, he should avoid grand fights as much as possible while training the Primordial Unity Technique and taking good care of his body.
Seo-jin ran his fingers through his disheveled hair and went down to the first floor of the inn for breakfast.
This morning's meal was refreshing bean sprout soup with rice.
Seo-jin cracked a raw egg into the bowl, stirred it around, and listened to the news coming from the TV.
[The climber who set the new record is confirmed to still be staying on the 2nd floor...]
The news was still full of stories about Seo-jin.
The public opinion within the Tower had become noisy with the achievement of the tutorial room record followed by the 2nd floor record.
Not only was achieving a new record itself surprising, but consecutive record achievements had occurred within a short period.
This meant only one thing.
‘Dojo breaking.’
A new rising star climbs the Tower and breaks all records.
This was something even Sword Star Ju Won-jae had never fully accomplished.
Of course, Seo-jin wasn't particularly interested in such things.
‘If only I can stick it to that bastard with this.’
That bastard has a strong competitive spirit and doesn't want to lose to anyone.
He might not show it outwardly, but his insides must be quite burning.
‘I'll stick it to that bastard Won-jae, and when he gets all worked up and climbs the Tower more enthusiastically, it'll be easier for me too.’
While that bastard works hard to conquer the top floors of the Tower, he could sweep through the floors below, taking all the achievements and items.
Seo-jin chuckled to himself as he finished eating his soup.
However, until the news ended, nothing about what happened in the Yellow Rock Forest was reported.
He had turned half the forest upside down while fighting with Hwangseokgong.
Moreover, there were witnesses who saw him making Baduki.
Yet it was this quiet, so they might have thought it wasn't worth reporting. Or perhaps Han So-yul had quietly covered it up from behind.
‘From her position, she'd want to hide the existence of black magic.’
The existence of black magic needed to be hidden to maintain order in the lower floors and prevent public confusion.
Also, her personal circumstances were involved.
Anyway,
"KKEUHEO."
Having finished a bowl of bean sprout soup, Seo-jin got up from his seat.
‘Now, where should I go?’
Though several days had passed since the first report, the path to the 3rd floor would still be full of Association people trying to find Seo-jin.
It would be better to avoid going up through the climbing test site.
There were many other ways to reach the upper floors besides that.
‘Should I slowly head up?’
Since he seemed to have finished everything he needed to do on the 2nd floor, he prepared to go to the 3rd floor.
JJALGAK-
Seo-jin left gold on the table and got up from his seat.
***
"...Ah, that story again."
Tower 29th floor. The main castle of the Hoakin Kingdom.
Inside the hall of the modern-style luxurious palace where the Tower's frontline strategy team stayed.
No matter which channel of the magic tool he turned to, only content about the mysterious newcomer who achieved the new record came out, making his ears feel like they were getting callused from listening.
Of course, achieving a new record was impressive, but it was just something from the lower floors.
Compared to the great undertaking of challenging the 30th floor representing humanity, it was trivial, yet they had been making noise about it for days.
PAK-
The boy who had been listening to the news, Grand Mage Tsuchimikado Gu-ren, irritably turned off his status window and asked.
"Won-jae, aren't you annoyed? Everyone's distracted by that unknown bastard and has no interest in us."
When all the spotlights should be focused here, some unknown bone-thin bastard was getting all the attention.
At this rate, he couldn't get revenge on those damn main family bastards.
To Gu-ren's indignant question, Ju Won-jae, who had been quietly maintaining his sword beside him, just shrugged his shoulders.
"Not really."
SEURING-
Ju Won-jae's eyes reflected in the well-honed blade.
His eyes held unwavering conviction and confidence.
‘No one can reach me.’
Though it might sound arrogant, he had the skill and conviction to back up that confidence.
He was the legend who had climbed from the bottom with just one sword and seized the greatest wealth and honor, truly the most famous person in the entire world.
Even now, countless people were challenging the Tower climb saying they wanted to become like him.
So that small disturbance happening on those lower floors wouldn't affect him in any way.
However,
GGUMTEUL-
Suddenly, Ju Won-jae discovered a small speck of dust on his blade and frowned.
It was just a tiny particle that could be blown away with a light breath, but Ju Won-jae didn't like it very much.
‘Vermin.’
PAJIK-
Ju Won-jae, who had infused mana into his sword to completely burn away the speck, sheathed his sword.
"No matter who gains how much fame where, it will all return to me."
Because his true journey hadn't even begun yet.
Gu-ren clicked his tongue at Won-jae's reaction.
"TSK, you might be fine with that, but I can't stand this. I need to succeed in the 30th floor climbing test quickly."
At this, Tsuchimikado family's retainer and Gu-ren's exclusive secretary, the Onmyoji Rei, added a comment.
"That's right. Separate from the newcomer's appearance, the Tower's conquest speed has been sluggish recently. It might be natural that public interest is declining."
The 30th floor challenge was already the third attempt. It was natural for public interest to decline.
Of course, this wasn't because the rankers of the frontline strategy team were lazy or lacking.
Unlike the lower floor tests overseen by the Climbing Management Office and the AI Babel, the frontline where they were located was truly wild.
The climbing quest to the next floor only opened after clearing all sorts of chain quests and world quests on each floor.
Moreover, since there was even a cooldown for re-challenges after one failure, time consumption was inevitable.
It had already been several months since they stopped in front of the 30th floor climbing quest. They needed to work a bit harder.
"If the 30th floor conquest takes any longer, it might harm not only reality but also the natives of this Tower."
There were research results showing that delays in conquering the top floors increased the frequency of mana disasters in reality, so dragging out time like this was dangerous.
Moreover, the current strategy team was currently camping in the royal castle for months, claiming to be heroes who would save the Hoakin Kingdom that ruled the Tower's 29th floor from crisis.
They were receiving all kinds of VIP treatment and monopolizing resources within the kingdom, but they hadn't been able to defeat the Demon Dragon, the boss of the climbing quest, so this was causing great damage to the natives as well.
However, Gu-ren, with both arms behind his head, replied as if it didn't matter.
"That research isn't clearly proven, right? And those natives, they're not even real people, so who cares if they die."
At Gu-ren's thoughtless remark, Choi Gang-hyeon, who had been lying quietly on the sofa, frowned.
"You thoughtless monkey bastard. Don't you remember when gates appeared in reality because climbing was blocked in the early Tower days? And what about natives? Do you need to get beaten up again to come to your senses?"
Even at the Fist King's sharp threat, Gu-ren didn't back down.
"What's this muscle-head bastard saying? If you don't like it, let's have a fight."
PPUDEUK-
As Choi Gang-hyeon flexed his fist, Gu-ren's retainer Rei hurriedly stepped forward to dissuade him.
"Fist King, please."
"......"
Rei, who always suffered from dealing with the thoughtless monkey.
Seeing his face, Choi Gang-hyeon cooled his anger and lay back on the sofa, turning his back with a HWIK.
It was when the atmosphere in the room had settled after one round of verbal sparring.
BEOLKEOK-
"I'm coming in~"
Someone vigorously opened the door and entered the hall.
The one who entered the hall with a bright smile was Saintess Kwon Ha-yeon.
Rei brightened up seeing her.
"Ah, Ha-yeon."
With her appearance, the stiff atmosphere seemed to lighten slightly.
Ha-yeon looked around the room, sensing the cold atmosphere.
"What's this atmosphere? Did you fight again?"
She poked the back of Choi Gang-hyeon, who was lying with his back turned, with her staff.
"You fought with Gu-ren again, right? I told you to control your temper."
"Hey."
When Choi Gang-hyeon turned his head to glare at her.
"AHEM."
Kwon Ha-yeon coughed unnecessarily and quickly changed the subject to get to the main point.
"More importantly, good news. The closed Great Cavity has opened. We can challenge the Demon Dragon again."
The 30th floor climbing test was a boss battle.
The Demon Dragon battle, where once you failed a challenge, you couldn't challenge again for a certain period.
That door had opened again this time.
Ju Won-jae nodded and got up from his seat.
"Good. Let's call Holy Knight Robert for this expedition too. This time we'll definitely succeed in conquering it."
The climbing test had been in a sluggish stalemate for months.
Moreover, with the unexpected appearance of a newcomer added to this, Ju Won-jae burned with even more fighting spirit.
***
Tower 2nd floor outskirts.
An oriental-style street where wooden buildings with red lanterns hung were entangled like a maze.
This place, mixed with numerous East Asian climbers, was exactly the Tower's Chinatown.
Seo-jin, who had set foot in that street, followed the markings left scrawled on wooden pillars in each district and arrived in front of a building.
"Was it here?"
This was Chinatown's secret herb shop.
Perhaps because it had been so long since he'd visited, even finding the way wasn't easy.
TANGTANG-
When Seo-jin knocked on the door with the ring in front of the main gate, an old woman greeted Seo-jin.
"Come in."
Seo-jin followed the old woman into the herb shop.
As he entered, the comfortable fragrance unique to herbal medicine stimulated his nose.
Following the leading old woman, he could see wooden drawers stacked in layers to the side and herbs lined up on the ceiling.
After briefly looking around the herb shop, Seo-jin handed the old woman a note he had written in advance.
"All top quality. Don't worry about money."
At the same time, Seo-jin firmly placed a gold pouch on the table.
Seeing the pouch, the old woman nodded without saying anything and began finding and weighing the herbs Seo-jin had ordered.
‘First, I'll make medicine with herbs available here.’
The tobacco Seo-jin enjoyed in his previous life was a secret elixir made by mixing ingredients that reduced the side effects and pain of black magic.
Though it wasn't as good as direct injection into blood vessels, it had the advantage of immediate effects and convenient carrying and use.
Moreover, since the medicinal effects were volatile and side effects weren't severe, not only Seo-jin but other party members used it frequently.
With the herbs available on the 2nd floor currently, he could only make an inferior version, but it would be better than having nothing.
Seo-jin paid roughly 5,000 gold and put the purchased herbs into his inventory.
"You're buying quite a lot. This is a bonus."
The old woman gave him a peculiarly shaped ginseng root as a service.
Seo-jin turned the ginseng around and frowned.
‘What is this? A hidden quest item?’
An object even Seo-jin, who was well-versed in herbs, was seeing for the first time.
These were mostly quest-exclusive items.
Seo-jin put it in his inventory for now.
"I'll use it well."
Having smoothly purchased herbs and food, Seo-jin next headed to the hunting ground on Chinatown's outskirts, commonly called the 'Bat Cave.'
‘The Bat Cave is both a hidden high-level dungeon and one of the passages leading to the 3rd floor.’
If you defeat the boss, the Vampire Bat King, and use the item you can obtain, a magic circle that directly transports you to the 3rd floor opens, making it perfect for climbing the Tower while avoiding the Association's eyes.
In the early days of the Tower's creation, when there was no Climber Association or climbing test sites, everyone climbed the Tower this way.
This was the same situation for the upper floors and strategy teams where the Association's power currently didn't reach.
It was when Seo-jin had just arrived in front of the Bat Cave's entrance.
SEUSSEUK-
Seo-jin felt suspicious presences gathering behind him and turned around.
"Come out."
At Seo-jin's call, Chinese gang members wearing black robes began to reveal themselves one by one from around that corner.
Muscular men surrounding Seo-jin.
All of them wore robes with black snakes drawn on their chests and had unique hairstyles.
Judging by their appearance, they were definitely Black Snake Gang.
One of the lower organizations of various sub-organizations under the Thief Guild, one of the violent organizations dominating Chinatown.
Seo-jin's gaze swept over their robes.
‘One snake emblem.’
The black snake emblem on their chests was one, meaning they were insignificant lower organization members.
‘Are they trying to extort money?’
They seemed to have followed him thinking he'd be a good source of income after seeing Seo-jin sweep up high-grade herbs from the herb shop.
Their average level was roughly level 10. Easy opponents for Seo-jin.
It was when Seo-jin was assessing the bastards' affiliation and strength.
One of the Black Snake Gang members stepped forward and spoke in a rough manner.
"Where are you going in such a hurry..."
Before the bastard could finish speaking.
BEONJJEOK-
Black lightning burst from Seo-jin's hand.