Chapter 133
Chapter 133
Chapter 133
The day passed in the blink of an eye.
"Let's set up camp for now."
In the middle of the dimly darkening forest after sunset.
Seo-jin's party, having pitched their tents, sat huddled together around a campfire they had lit in the center.
Circe, who had joined Seo-jin's team as an advisor.
She asked the team members who were sitting around the fire, hastily slurping chicken soup.
"By the way, how did you two end up getting roped in by this guy?"
She had heard that her disciple had formed a new team, but she had never heard the detailed circumstances of the recruitment.
At Circe's question, Austin put down his bowl and cleared his throat.
"Ahem, it started with a connection on the 12th floor, Lady."
"Try calling me Lady one more time in front of me. I'll rip your tongue out."
Circe threatened while flexibly moving her finger joints.
The puppet on the 29th floor was of a different caliber from the household puppet she had used on the 3rd floor.
That combat puppet could easily rip out a fragile human's tongue.
Austin, having been forcibly drilled with etiquette, swallowed his saliva and slowly parted his lips.
"......Half a year ago, the leader came down to the lower floors personally and made an offer. He said he was planning to form a team and asked if I was interested in joining."
At the time, Seo-jin's team lacked a tank and healer, so Siegfried and Austin were optimal choices.
Siegfried was chosen by Gabriel and even had aptitude for holy swords, making him a promising paladin with a bright future.
He could stand at the front to protect team members and even provide healing through divine magic, making him the top recruitment priority.
Austin was similar.
A spiritualist chosen directly by Narcissus, with aptitude for the four great spirits.
Spirits could also be positioned at the front to protect the party, and water-attribute spirits even had healing abilities.
He too wasn't far behind in recruitment priority.
"He said that if I joined the team, I could climb the tower with beautiful women. This was not a lie."
Seo-jin's team was composed entirely of handsome men and beautiful women, and there were many great beauties among the supporters as well.
They far exceeded Austin's aesthetic standards.
"Ha, is that really the reason?"
Circe let out a hollow laugh as if dumbfounded.
Her fingers were moving actively, suggesting her desire to rip out Austin's tongue had grown stronger.
That's when Seo-jin stepped in and added a word.
"Please don't be so angry, Master. Even if his mouth runs like that, he's not such a bad guy."
At first, having only heard rumors from before his regression, he had thought of him as just a playboy, but after experiencing it firsthand, he wasn't such a thoughtless fellow.
When he had Francesca do a background check, he found that the guy genuinely wanted to share women's pain and sorrow and be a helpful advisor to them.
Even if his behavior seemed endlessly frivolous, his heart toward others was sincere.
'......However, only when it comes to beauties.'
He was merciless toward those who didn't meet his standards.
Of course, this was personal preference, so he had no intention of interfering.
He simply used that nature to his advantage.
Austin concluded his words.
"Since we're doing this anyway, shouldn't we stand at the forefront of tower climbing to meet more people with stories? So I accepted the proposal."
There wasn't a single lie in those words, as he had greatly lamented after hearing the story of Lunaria from the 20th floor that Seo-jin had told him.
He said that if he had been there, he would have comforted her heart.
'......Rather than comfort, he probably would have been hitting on her and ended up imprisoned for life in the Sea Dragon Citadel's dungeon.'
Well, that's what he thought.
In addition, Seo-jin had added one condition: if there were any artifacts or items obtained during tower climbing that spiritualists could use, he promised to provide most of them as support.
It was useless to Seo-jin anyway.
Next was Siegfried.
He put down his cleanly emptied bowl and spoon and opened his mouth.
"Actually, I didn't want to participate in the team. Gabriel strongly discouraged it."
A tower climber from Germany who received the favor of Gabriel, a deity of Pantheon.
He climbed the tower smoothly, receiving various support from Pantheon-affiliated temples on each floor.
Just like how Seo-jin, who had Valerius's token, received VIP treatment at Atlantis's temple.
However, Siegfried felt boredom growing like a hothouse flower, and thought that focusing only on tower climbing wouldn't give him the heart-pounding adventures he wanted or the good deeds of helping the weak.
He also happened to admire Nova.
He wanted to have cool adventures like Seo-jin, solving problems scattered throughout the world.
So after discussion with Gabriel, he decided to join Seo-jin's team.
The condition for joining was to craft the holy sword Excalibur and transfer it to Siegfried.
Seo-jin also intended to prevent Paladin Robert from obtaining it, so it wasn't a problematic condition.
However, like the Transcending Heaven Sword, Excalibur's creation required a sword's original prototype, so they needed to set production priorities.
Still, Excalibur's blueprint could be obtained on the 50th floor, and the Transcending Heaven Sword's blueprint could be obtained in the martial arts world setting on the 60th floor, so there didn't seem to be a need to worry about priorities.
After hearing the explanation, Circe patted Siegfried's head.
"I see. Unlike that cunning fellow, you joined for honest and noble reasons."
"My reason is also noble and honest, Mademoiselle."
"......"
Click-.
At Austin's single comment, Circe silently pulled out one finger and took out a small chainsaw inside it.
Whirr-.
The saw blade spinning with a frightening sound.
Beyond the glinting saw blade, Circe's eyes shone coldly.
"Your tongue? Or down below? One of them is going to fly off, so choose well."
At those words, Austin fled in terror.
"P-please spare me!"
"It would be better not to resist. Something important might get cut off."
Austin threw down his bowl and fled frantically, with Circe slowly pursuing him from behind.
Along with his screams, the night deepened.
***
29th floor. Near the Upaletia Mountain Range.
"Damn, what the hell is this......"
Black-clad assassins grimacing while hitting their malfunctioning artifacts.
Those who had gathered to eliminate Seo-jin were panicking at the sudden turn of events.
All the artifacts they had were suddenly dead, and their levels had also become Level 1.
One assassin asked the man in a suit.
"Wh-what should we do, Director?"
"......"
The one overseeing these assassins was Hanseong's executioner.
The existence who had handled all of Hanseong's dirty work since the previous chairman's era, commonly called 'Director'.
He sighed while looking at the flustered assassins.
Whew-.
The reason these people had gathered on this 29th floor was simple.
Nova assassination.
Following the incident on the 20th floor, public opinion about Nova had worsened, and simultaneously, a plan to eliminate him was executed.
However, perhaps noticing that assassins were after him, unlike before, he began traveling in a team.
Because of this, assassinating him became much more difficult.
His skills were already a problem, but unfortunately Nam-gung Cheon and Francesca, said to be the pinnacle of thief-types, took turns protecting him.
Whether he was also versed in pharmaceuticals, poison assassination didn't work either - no matter what he ate, he never once got sick.
Moreover, he had no intention of leaving the tower, and even when he occasionally came outside, he only briefly stayed at the ranker-exclusive apartment guarded by the Association.
So eliminating him outside the tower wasn't feasible either.
That said, targeting his team members wasn't easy either.
First, Han So-yul was the sister of Association President Han Seo-hee and daughter of hero Han Kyeong-cheol. Touching her wrong could stir up a hornet's nest.
The mysterious newcomer, Kim Se-yeon, was also extraordinary.
With animal-like instincts, she would detect and avoid any scheme in advance, and she stuck close to Nova's side, leaving no blind spots.
The newly recruited Siegfried and Austin were also problems.
In terms of skill alone, they weren't much to look at, but since deities from Avalon and Pantheon protected them, they couldn't recklessly lay a hand on them.
They said he received Gabriel and Narcissus's favor on the 12th floor, really.
Not to mention the Nam-gung siblings.
In the end, they couldn't execute a single proper move until they climbed to the 29th floor.
'If this continues, it will become difficult to even procure assassins.'
Tower climbers who had reached the 29th floor were extremely limited.
This plan, gathering elites raised by corporations and the few high-class assassins from the underworld, was their last chance.
It was practically an all-out effort.
However, for some reason, a massive barrier had spread across the mountain range where they were hiding, and the unprecedented situation of the assassins' levels being demoted to Level 1 had occurred.
"......"
The assassins who had lost their composure in panic.
The Director looked at them and narrowed his eyes.
'Having to proceed with work with these ragtag bunch.'
The most important thing for an assassin was composure.
Their levels were ridiculously high, but they were nothing but failing grades as assassins.
If not for the level restriction, he could have mobilized more specialists. How regrettable.
The Director, who let out a deep sigh, silently sought the administrator.
"Administrator, are you there?"
The Director spoke toward empty air.
Soon.
Step-.
Artovice appeared like a shadow from the darkness.
"You called?"
"Could you explain what this situation is right now?"
The Director asked in a quite respectful tone, but Artovice answered curtly.
"It's nothing special. You've just been coincidentally caught up in a test I'm overseeing."
Artovice's golden eyes gleamed as he looked down coldly at the assassins.
Since these were assassins who had clearly gathered with impious intentions, no administrator would welcome such people with open arms.
However.
'This is something Nimrod permitted.'
Whatever assassination plan they were hatching, Artovice was in a situation where he couldn't interfere.
This backstory irritated Artovice and gave him great displeasure.
He couldn't treat them favorably even if he wanted to.
"Whatever your purpose, I have no intention of interfering. So, I'll give you a special choice."
He pointed outside the forest and continued.
"Either leave the barrier right now and wait for the test to end."
Click-.
"Or participate directly in my test."
At the golden eyes full of hostility, the Director quietly fell into thought.
'A test overseen by the administrator.'
Was the level drop because they got caught up in that test?
But even a floor administrator shouldn't be able to reset levels like this without our consent.
Perhaps there was an agreement at a higher level.
The Director opened his mouth.
"How many people are needed to participate in the test?"
At that question, Artovice opened his mouth.
"Eight. I'll only accept exactly eight people."
***
Nam-gung Cheon's team camp, located on the opposite side of Seo-jin's team.
Nam-gung Cheon, who had been sitting around the campfire listening to Hyeon-wol's explanation, clapped his hands as if he understood.
"Aha! So what you're saying is, if we understand the principles without relying on the system, we can defeat high-level monsters right now?"
Hyeon-wol nodded with her arms crossed.
"It's a somewhat convenient interpretation, but it's not wrong. I thought you would already know this?"
Nam-gung Cheon was the disciple of Divine Spear Lee Seo-mun, who had once competed with Seo-jin in the past.
With his skills, he should have long ago felt that his master Lee Seo-mun's power was different from other tower climbers.
He should also know that the source of that power was the fundamentals of martial arts honed from outside the tower.
"If you only rely on the tower's system corrections, you can neither reduce consumed mana below 1 nor arbitrarily determine a skill's power and sustainability. However, if it's power you've fully mastered yourself, you can freely manipulate that power beyond the system's corrections."
That was acquisition in the true sense.
It was only possible through countless training and mastery processes.
This was both a result that Hyeon-wol had realized while watching Seo-jin's training process by his side.
And it was also information sleeping in her memories related to the Primordial Unity Technique.
'If I dig into this part, I might accurately remember my own background too.'
Having finished her thoughts, Hyeon-wol declared to the four people gathered.
"Since you've roughly understood what I mean, let's start training in earnest from tomorrow. I'll work you to the bone, so be prepared!"