Shattering a Ten-Year Record
They said the Tower of Chaos spiked in difficulty every ten floors.
Floors 1 through 10: something an ordinary B-class hunter could clear.
Floors 11 through 20: a level only a peak B-class hunter could just barely manage.
Floors 21 through 30: territory for B-class hunters capable of Aura or Shadowless Casting.
Floors 31 through 40: a gauntlet only hunters who could fight A-class opponents as equals might hope to conquer.
Floors 41 through 50: so brutal that even peak A-class hunters struggled to push through.
That was the data built up by every hunter who had ever thrown down a challenge at the Tower of Chaos.
The highest record sat at the forty-third floor, if I remembered right.
Even hunters who could stand toe-to-toe with peak A-class had never set foot on the fiftieth.
Looking at that difficulty curve…
“I am my Lord’s sword!”
I could understand why Sir Isra was cutting through everything like a one-woman army.
You have cleared Floor 36 of the Tower of Chaos.
A 30-minute rest period has been granted.
You may halt the challenge, or proceed at once.
From Floor 1 all the way to Floor 36.
We hadn’t stopped once. Just kept running.
All I’d done was mash the challenge button, and somehow we had already rounded the halfway mark.
“Sir. You all right?”
“I have no need to catch my breath, so it matters not at all.”
The undead were the dead.
They didn’t need to breathe like the living, and their stamina barely flagged.
Didn’t they still have a “Stamina” stat, though?
Every undead possessed the passive skill Immortal Legion.
The grade varied with their rank, but the common effect was a correction to their combat endurance proportional to their stamina.
“There are conveniences to having become this sort of body.”
Sir Isra gave a crooked little smile.
“Had I possessed such a form in life, I might have reached His Majesty’s side.”
The final image of Sir Isra from the dream rose unbidden.
A knight slumped in some nameless forest, every last scrap of strength spent, fading away.
That lonely figure was impossible to forget.
“Hrm.”
I swallowed the bitter smile that tried to form and changed the subject.
“You’ve burned through a fair bit of mana, haven’t you?”
“This much is nothing.”
“You thick-skulled iron head. Big sister here will take over, so rest a while.”
“I could keep going all day.”
“Sure, blow all your mana, and then a real threat shows up. That’ll be just wonderful, won’t it?”
“Hahaha! Jealous of my exploits, are you? Conserving mana is just as necessary for you.”
“Urghghghgh.”
When it came to sustained combat, mages were several steps behind.
Not that Ingrid’s talent for instantaneous firepower and creating variables wasn’t outstanding.
“Sir. Rest a little.”
“But my Lord!”
“Ingrid has a point.”
Thirty-six consecutive battles.
She hadn’t even needed Aura—just Mana Release—and still fought with ruthless efficiency.
Even so.
Like clothes soaked by a drizzle, she had burned through roughly a third of her reserves.
No reason to push when our side had power to spare.
“I shall obey.”
Sir Isra answered in a voice with the emotion carefully banked, and returned to my side.
Take it easy.
You’ll wear your bones down to nothing.
“They give us plenty of time to get ready. How considerate.”
“Want me to pull out the Skeleton Mages?”
“I’m grateful for the consideration.”
I drew twenty Skeleton Mages from the Death Space.
“Keh-geh-gehl.”
“Master. Please have them ready Fireballs.”
“Got it. All of you, cast Fireball.”
“Geh-gehl.”
The Skeleton Mages clacked their jawbones, and several spheres of flame took shape about thirty centimeters from their bony fingers.
“Tell them to release mana control.”
Common sense said that if you dropped control while a Fireball was already formed, it would detonate right there.
But this was Ingrid. She had something in mind.
“Release.”
“Grrgel.”
The rearranged mana structures began to scatter into the air—
Unique Formula — Solar Eclipse
Ingrid wove the crimson orbs together with her unique formula.
"Fireball × 20"
"Cyclone"
⟨ Modified Formula — Shatter ⟩
Thanks to Mana Sovereignty and Spirit Eye, I could glimpse the true face of the art Ingrid was displaying.
It was beautiful—like looking at a masterwork painting.
She forcibly seized the mana that should have detonated the instant the rearranged structures collapsed, slotted it into her unique formula, and rewrote the architecture.
A glimpse of her genius.
“So this is the Witch of the Solar Eclipse.”
“In life I never beheld a mage of such caliber.”
Even Sir Isra let out a murmur of admiration.
【Isn’t the unique formula the impressive part?】
“You little thief. The formula isn’t everything.”
【You wouldn’t understand what’s so impressive about it.】
“Even if the Skeleton Mages drop control, interfering with mana rearranged by someone else is no ordinary feat.”
An art only a true Archwitch could mimic.
She wasn’t even linked to them by soul the way I was with the Witch Order’s undead.
Mana control and computational power that defied common sense.
The tip of the furiously spinning whirlwind was honed sharp as a spear.
“KRAAAAAAAAAH!”
The ogre threw its arms wide and bellowed—
Shraaak!
The wind, condensed to its absolute limit, punched through its chest.
A cyclone that had focused both explosive energy and flame mana into a single point.
It tore through the ogre’s tough hide with a wet rip, drove inside, and unleashed its heat to churn the monster’s insides.
“Kuo….”
The roaring ogre made a sound like a punctured bellows and toppled over.
You have cleared Floor 37 of the Tower of Chaos.
A 30-minute rest period has been granted.
You may halt the challenge, or proceed at once.
“Hoho. How did you find this maiden’s magic?”
“Incredible. It looked like a work of art.”
“My. Master’s praise makes my heart go pit-a-pat.”
“Stop playing games, mage.”
“Is that all the appreciation I get?”
“It was decent.”
“Hoho. Even the iron head has an eye for quality.”
A D-rank Fireball couldn’t so much as singe an ogre’s hair.
Even detonated at point-blank range, it wouldn’t burn the hide.
Their innate magic resistance was simply that absurd—which was why ogres were called a mage’s nightmare.
We’d had a sixty-second prep window, sure.
But combining twenty D-rank spells and a single C-rank spell to take down an ogre should have been impossible.
“Sharing the mana cost makes things so much easier.”
Solar Eclipse itself didn’t burn much mana.
And since the twenty Skeleton Mages had cast the Fireballs, Ingrid’s reserves still had plenty of room.
“Already Floor 38.”
We had blasted through Floor 37 without spending any real combat power.
At this pace, we might actually conquer the Tower of Chaos.
Heh heh heh heh.
I wanted it.
Breaking Floor 50—something no hunter had ever managed!
Wasn’t that worth aiming for?
“My Lord. Place your faith in us.”
“Hohoho. Master need only watch. Leave the fighting to us.”
Ugh.
I never said I was going to swing a sword myself, okay?
“I trust you.”
“At your service!”
“I’ll repay Master’s faith.”
【Big Boss. You’re not giving me any work, are you?】
“Quiet, thief.”
“Stay out of it!”
【Thief. Quiet.】
Even Roan, who had been silent until now, piled on.
Using the five words he was allowed once a minute just to mock someone…
Everyone’s dead serious about the teasing. Really.
Time for our side to get serious too.
“Both of you, come here.”
I laid a hand on Sir Isra’s head as if administering a baptism.
“Hatred Liberation.”
Holy power settles upon the target.
Hatred Liberation has been applied.
An A-grade holy spell passed down by Roan, the Constellation of the Evil God.
A skill whose buff duration and potency both grew the longer the battle continued.
I cast the same holy spell on Ingrid.
“Master. Stroke me a little more.”
“Mage. I told you to stop playing games.”
“Didn’t you like it?”
“Mmm. Ahem.”
Sir, why is your face turning red?
You’re not mad that I patted a knight’s head, right?
“If you don’t want it, you can refuse next time.”
“Hrm. How could I? It is all for my Lord’s sake, so I must endure.”
The mana fused with holy power still had plenty of room.
I couldn’t buff every single retainer, so I extended the spell to Draco and the Abyss Revenants as well.
【I’m fine. Me.】
【Big Boss. You’re not doing me too?】
“You planning to fight up front?”
【Eek! I-I’m fine, Big Boss.】
All right.
Time to push even harder.
I slammed the Y button with my right hand.
At the hunter guild GGG in California, USA, Sophia opened the guild master’s office door with a bright smile.
“He’s finally entered. Mr. Park.”
“The Tower of Chaos, is it.”
A third-generation overseas Korean and living symbol of the American Dream.
Yujeong Kim—legendary hunter and master of GGG—pursed her lips.
“Anyone listening would think he was one of ours.”
“We’re partners, so isn’t it the same thing?”
“We’ll go with that.”
Yujeong Kim gave a short, dry snort of laughter.
Just seeing Sophia smile so openly—when she’d been walking around with a funeral face for days—was meaningful enough.
“Come to think of it, I’m still furious. That bastard James.”
The escort who had stepped out of line without fear when they visited Korea.
Because he stood in Executive Director William’s faction—the one keeping Sophia in check—she hadn’t been able to punish him properly.
“You said Mr. Park beat James, correct?”
“Yes. He completely overwhelmed a peak A-class hunter.”
“If a C-class can do that much, won’t he snatch the highest record this time?”
Floor 43 of the Tower of Chaos.
For over ten years the unchanging record had belonged to the Saint of Los Angeles—Sophia herself.
“I should hand over the throne with a glad heart.”
“You think he can do it?”
“Fifty-fifty.”
Minho’s strength didn’t lie in his personal combat power.
It was his retainers—beings with intellect and self-awareness—and the servants he crafted with his own hands.
“He went in the moment he hit B-class, so his servants’ levels probably haven’t jumped dramatically.”
“So the Saint of Los Angeles’s record is safe?”
“You sound like you want him to break it.”
“Earlier you said it was fine.”
“When Master puts it that way, I start not wanting it.”
Sophia recalled the sparring match they’d held over the Tower of Chaos ticket.
The combat power and battle sense of those two retainers had been formidable.
Watching them had sent a chill down the back of her neck.
Specs that transcended rank, mana application, and a deep understanding of both swordsmanship and magic…
“Still, seeing the top of the tower will be difficult.”
Thirty minutes of rest wasn’t long.
It was barely enough to recover spent stamina and mana—never mind healing injuries or clearing debuffs taken during the trials.
Condition only worsened the higher you climbed.
Managing that efficiently while ascending was no simple task.
With the combat power and endurance of the undead soldiers he’d acquired before his promotion, reaching the top of the tower would be hard.
“Even so, I hope he breaks Floor 50.”
“I’ll be looking forward to the result.”
Yujeong Kim let out a hearty laugh.
At that same moment—
<|eos|>