Tower of Ordeal, Floor 26 (2)

The goal wasn't simply to clear the tower. It ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was to clear it as fast as humanly possible.

After all, it wasn't just the rewards from the Tower of Ordeal he had to think about — forging those rewards into runes and then enhancing them would devour a fair chunk of time as well.

"Song Yeonhee."

"Yes, sir!"

"Thanks for lending them to me. I'll level them up plenty before I hand them back."

Baek Jinwoo took Song Yeonhee's puppets back and registered them to Party 2. For a full-speed sprint through the tower, nothing beat these little guys.

"Oh, please — if anything, I'm the grateful one!"

For Song Yeonhee, it was an offer with no downside whatsoever. Let her puppets run Floors 21 through 50 of the Tower of Ordeal? That meant a truly colossal influx of experience. Raising levels by fusing in low-grade summons ate up obscene amounts of time and money — a one-week "study abroad" in the Tower was easily the better deal.

There was just one risk...

What if the Guild Master never comes back out?

Aigoo! No point entertaining gloomy thoughts like that.

"I'll just keep up my conditioning and the breathing technique Hungyo taught me."

And truthfully, with the Heavenly Heart Body blended with the Limitless Body, Song Yeonhee could practice her puppet control just fine through mental training alone.

"And Hwang Jiwoo."

"Yes, Jinwoo!"

"Sorry, but you'll have to sit this one out and hold down the fort outside."

"Of course I will! I'll just think of it as a camping trip."

He cleared things with the headquarters as well, asking them to set aside temporary lodging where she could stay alongside the staff.

To keep Pokryongi's sudden quest from resetting, every floor had to be cleared within one hour — no exceptions. And on any floor that looked like it might run longer? He would have to leave Pokryongi behind entirely. Even then, five hours was the absolute limit; any more than that, and she would be forcibly reverse-summoned.

Party 1 was the elite strike force: Ramba, Hungyo, Pokryongi, Doldori, and Lund.

Why Lund, you ask? Partly because there were no other summons left to fill the slot, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and partly because trudging back every five hours to re-summon him would have been a pain. Lund wouldn't be doing any hunting anyway — even inside the dungeon, he'd just keep burning through materials and hammering away at his forge.

Party 2 was Song Yeonhee's puppets. Party 3 he packed with the Wind Falcon, the Sky Dolphin, the Celestial Wyvern, and the rest of his mounts and buffers for player transport.

"Everybody ready?"

"Of course, Jinwoo!"

"Yes, we're ready."

"My Lord, we shall sweep them all away."

As expected — utterly dependable, the lot of them! Even walking into that dreaded place known as a graveyard for players, Baek Jinwoo didn't feel so much as a flicker of nerves.

"Player Baek Jinwoo has arrived!" The staff greeted him with undisguised reverence.

Normally his registration card would have to be verified, but even that formality had been waived. These days, his face was registration and credentials enough.

"We've kept your privacy settings on, just like last time!"

"No need."

It had all come out anyway. With the whole world in on the secret — and the Five Emperors all but certain he was Jinugod — what was the point of hiding? Hungyo had grown considerably stronger by now, and he was building a guild besides.

"I won't care about media exposure, so go ahead and release them."

"R-really, sir?"

"Yep. Shall we head in, then?"

"Understood! Please do clear it safely!"

With the two staff members bowing him off, Baek Jinwoo stepped through the tower's main gate — into the rift churning with black aurora.

The Floor 10 boss had been the Cyclops (S-rank). The Floor 20 boss, Dracul (S-rank). So what awaited on Floor 30?

The Phantom. A ghost-type boss. Every ten floors had its own theme, and the theme for Floors 21 through 30 was ghosts!

"Brrrr... why's it so creepy here?!" Ramba rubbed both arms and ducked behind Baek Jinwoo's back.

It was undeniably eerie. Dark clouds smothered the sky, letting barely any sunlight reach the streets below. The buildings of the abandoned city were old and decrepit, their windows clogged with dust and cobwebs.

"Stop cowering and swing that staff of yours, Ramba."

Shring! At Hungyo's scolding — punctuated by the ring of his drawn sword — Ramba stuck out her lips in a pout.

"Tch, fiiine. Mister Big Shot!"

"My Lord, shall we sweep them away at once?"

Truthfully, the ghost theme could be brutally punishing for ordinary players. It looks deserted, but every single one of those things is actually a ghost.

The faintly flickering streetlamps. The motel with its shattered sign. The shop with its shutter raised just a crack. Each and every one of them was designed to beguile players and snare them in cunning traps.

But?

"Yeah, sweep them away."

KWAGAGAGAGAGA!

Against the firepower of Hungyo, fully decked out in graduation-tier runes, none of it meant a thing.

"Yes, My Lord. I shall crush every last one of them."

PAHT! Hungyo shot skyward and brought his sword slashing down once more. With that one simple sweep, the city erupted as though carpet-bombed.

KWAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA!

Hungyo was relentless, unstoppable. As the buildings they haunted came crashing down, ghosts shrieked and came swarming up into the air.

"KYAAAAAH!"

"KYEEEEHEK!"

But then — SHWAK! Doldori, boosted by Ramba's buffs, whirled his scythe and cleaved their bodies clean apart. The Death God of the underworld, the Whirlwind Slayer! Doldori's movements were more ghostly than the ghosts themselves.

"YEAHHH! Now THAT'S the stuff!" Ramba whooped with delight, as if she'd never once been trembling in fear.

Baek Jinwoo wasn't idle either. SHWAAAAH! He scattered puppets to all four corners and unleashed elemental attacks on every front.

Not bad at all. I'll have to track down even better puppets later. A-rank or higher, at minimum.

"My Lord, the perimeter is clear. Advancing now."

"Okay."

The orthodox route on Floor 21 was to seek out the Chief Ghost (B-rank) dwelling at the city's center. Baek Jinwoo, however, did no such thing.

Because later on, this entire city would coalesce into a colossal City Ghost (A-rank) to menace players. The fight against the City Ghost came on Floor 25. Better to weaken it in advance. Smash everything to pieces now, and Floor 25 would practically come free later.

And one more thing. Ten City Ghosts fused together formed the Imperial Ghost — the Phantom (S-rank) itself. The theme here was simple: break everything, and the floor breaks with it.

"Let's move, double time!"

"Yes, My Lord!"

Nice! They'd finally met the one at the city's center. The only problem was...

"Krrrk...?"

Floor 21 came to an end with the Chief Ghost staring, utterly dumbfounded, at the surrounding scenery — collapsed into nothing but rubble.

Yoo-hoo.

Oh. Universal Polishing Agents, huh? Not bad. He still had plenty of graduation-tier runes left to tune, and the polishing agent was one of the most coveted rune enhancers in the game — one that almost never hit the open market.

"Alright, let's take it down right now. The Chief Ghost."

"Yes."

KWAGAGAGAGA!

Floor 22 was simple: kill the Chief Ghost. Simple for Baek Jinwoo, that is — a single Chief Ghost actually packed more punch than the Cyclops (S-rank) they'd faced on Floor 10 of the Tower. Which was only natural. Either way, it was something Hungyo and Pokryongi could wrap up with room to spare.

FWARARAK!

"KYEEEEEEHEK!" Wearing a face full of grief, the Chief Ghost melted away.

And the reward?

"Whoa, hot damn!" Now this was good. Something far pricier and rarer than polishing agents had just dropped!

He still had the drops from Floors 18 and 20 as well, which brought his rune selection tickets to a grand total of five.

Just one more, and... He'd be able to pull an entire graduation-tier rune set on the spot. True, he couldn't roll Unique — only Rare — but a Rare was nothing to sneeze at!

Hang in there just a little longer, Lund. Baek Jinwoo intended to use these tickets to pull the Master Craftsman (Rare) runes.

And this was genuinely monstrous. At maxed crafting level, the base success rate sat at 25% — and this set would raise it all the way to 50%. The savings in materials alone would be enormous.

"Off to a good start, huh? Let's sprint straight to Floor 23." A full bloom of a smile spread across Baek Jinwoo's lips.

Song Yeonhee and Hwang Jiwoo grew close at lightning speed. Song Yeonhee was twenty-three, Hwang Jiwoo twenty-two. The small age gap helped, and being glued together in front of the Tower of Ordeal day after day did the rest!

Munch, munch. Hwang Jiwoo, halfway through a hamburger after finishing her conditioning, found herself growing curious.

"Yeonhee unni."

"Mm?"

"But why are you staying out here, unni?"

Hwang Jiwoo was out here to keep Pokryongi's quest from resetting, but Song Yeonhee had no real need to be.

"Just because." She smiled brightly. "You're good company. And I'm curious about the Guild Master."

"Jinwoo?"

"Mmm, well — to be precise, it's the puppets the Guild Master is using that I'm curious about. It's nice being able to check on them whenever he passes in and out. How high will their levels climb? Just thinking about it gets me excited."

"Aww, I don't think that's the only reason?"

"You little..."

BONK! Song Yeonhee gave Hwang Jiwoo's crown a light knuckle rap, laughing. "Okay, fine. It's true," she admitted. "Our Guild Master is a feast for the eyes just standing there, you know. I'm simply killing two birds with one stone by staying."

"Whoa, so you're interested in him?"

"Is there a woman alive who isn't interested in the Guild Master?"

"Fair point." Hwang Jiwoo nodded as if conceding. His ability aside, the man was simply handsome. His physique was nothing to scoff at, either. The first time she'd laid eyes on him, she'd been so starstruck she could barely string a sentence together. She simply knew her place — which was exactly why she kept it to herself.

Just as the two were chattering away —

"My goodness, you two work so hard, national team stars!" One of the headquarters staff came tiptoeing over, carefully balancing two iced Americanos. "You look like you're having lunch, so I bought these for dessert."

"Oh."

"Thank you."

The two women bowed and accepted the cups. "Don't mention it! We're the grateful ones! You've both been training like mad for the World League since this morning..."

The staffer clicked his tongue as if he'd never in his life witnessed such brutal exercise. Two delicate young women sprinting at full tilt past the tower with tires strapped around their waists — he honestly couldn't tell whether they were players or athletes from some national training center.

He would never in his wildest dreams guess the truth: that Hwang Jiwoo and Song Yeonhee ranked at the very bottom of the national team in physical conditioning.

"If it's no trouble, might I ask for an autograph?"

"Oh — yes... of course. One coming up."

"Thank you so much!" With national team autographs secured on both coffee cups, the staffer wore the expression of a man who owned the world.

Right at that moment —

KRRRNG!

"Oh!" The staffer cried out at the sight of Jamsil Tower's main gate swinging open.

"Again?" How many times had it been now? Floors 21 through 25 — he'd come out of every single one in under an hour. Going in and coming out meant one thing: cleared.

"Jinwoo!"

"Guild Master!" Hwang Jiwoo and Song Yeonhee sprang to their feet. Baek Jinwoo emerged looking slightly worn, and summoned Pokryongi.

"From Floor 26 on, it might take a bit longer."

"Oh? How long?"

"I'll be out within five hours no matter what, so look after Pokryongi for me."

Leaving Pokryongi in their care, Baek Jinwoo walked straight back through the gate.

"..."

The staffer and the two women could only stare after him in open awe.