Tower of Ordeal, Floor 26 (3)
From Floor 26 onward, he would have to raid a total of three cities.
Under normal circumstances he'd have moved from one to the next and broken them one by one—but that was no longer an option. He had to crush the City Ghost (B-grade) ruling each city within five hours.
"Hungyo."
- Yes, My Lord.
"You move north alone. You're confident in that?"
- Of course.
"And the rest of you head west."
At Baek Jinwoo's order, Ramba raised her dainty little hand.
- Then what about you, Jinwoo? Which way are you going?
"I'm heading east with the Sky Wyvern."
- Whaaat?
Ramba recoiled in horror.
- You're going all by yourself? That's way too dangerous!
"Can't be helped. Otherwise Pokryongi's quest gets reset."
What a pain. But there was no way around it.
A hundred days of suffering! If that was the price of an absurd, ultra-mega-broken skill, it was worth swallowing.
And strictly speaking, he wasn't alone. He had the wyvern and the puppets with him.
"With the puppets at my side, a City Ghost is more than manageable—so quit worrying."
From here on out, it was a matter of control. What no player could ever manage, not even dying and coming back to life, Baek Jinwoo could.
"Ramba."
- Y-yeah?
"Stack up, and fast. Your side has the least firepower—without your stacks, you might not push through."
- True...... Pokryongi's not with us there, after all.
Fwip-fwip-fwip-fwip-FWIP!
Ramba began whirling her staff. The only one she could count on now was Doldori. She would have to pile Doldori's stacks to the max and carve her way through with that scythe.
"Right, no time to waste. Let's move out."
The worst-case scenario, after all, was nothing more than Pokryongi's quest resetting. He could simply train another month or so to make up for it—no problem there. A little disappointing, maybe. And there was the matter of coaxing Hwang Jiwoo a while longer, but well. She was a guildmate now; if he asked her to stay, she'd stay.
Whoooosh!
Baek Jinwoo shot skyward on the wyvern's beating wings.
"Last one to finish loses. Deal?"
- We make haste at once, My Lord!
- Got it! No way I'm losing! Here we gooooooo!
The summons scattered toward their assigned destinations.
Shwaaaaah!
Wind rushing past his face, Baek Jinwoo sank into thought.
Current floor: 26. The rewards he'd collected so far went something like this:
[Floor 21 — Universal Polishing Agent × 20]
[Floor 22 — Top-Tier Rune Selection Ticket (Bound) × 2]
[Floor 23 — High-Grade Summoning Scroll × 25]
[Floor 24 — Top-Grade Summoning Scroll × 7]
[Floor 25 — Universal Polishing Agent × 20]
Long story short: unremarkable. Just the usual fare the Tower of Ordeal always spat out! He'd hoped for a rare monster like the Mindreader Bird (A-grade) or a high-grade random box, but sadly, nothing special had come up.
There they are.
Had it been about an hour since he'd taken to the sky? Ghosts were gradually coming into view.
"Wyvern."
- Krurururu!
"Drop down a little."
Skreeeeeee!
The wyvern tore through the sky and dove. Savoring the stomach-lurching thrill, Jinwoo focused.
Every single one had to die as he passed. That was how he would drive down the difficulty of the Floor 30 final boss, the Phantom (S-grade).
Sreeeeek!
Baek Jinwoo flexed his fingers and began controlling five puppets at once.
Fire Thunder, Water Thunder, Wood Thunder, Metal Thunder, Earth Thunder! The five wove zigzagging arcs past the wyvern's flanks, unleashing elemental attacks—and each pass left afterimages burning in its wake—
KWAGAGAGAGAGA!
- Kyaaaaaah!
- Kyeeeeeeek!
The ghosts split apart, shrieking.
Why is this so easy? It felt uncanny. Was there really such a thing as aptitude? Things that had never quite come together back in Battle of Summoners now flowed with effortless grace.
Definitely built for reality, not a monitor.
Click!
Baek Jinwoo switched on the recording function built into the gear he was wearing. Until now he'd simply smashed through everything without recording any strategy footage, but this time it seemed worth turning on.
Got to show Song Yeonhee this. It would probably help her a great deal.
Shwaaaaah!
The farther he pushed forward, the denser the ghosts grew. He seemed to be nearing the city. Naturally, he blew apart every ghost in his path, and his level skyrocketed accordingly.
[Fire Thunder (B-grade) has risen to Level 30.]
[Fire Thunder (B-grade)'s Strength increases by 3.]
[Water Thunder (B-grade) has risen to Level 30.]
[Water Thunder (B-grade)'s Strength increases by 3.]
Whoa. Level 30 already.
He'd brought it up during the last synthesis: the level cap was 100. But generally, synthesis with low-grade summons topped out around 35. Beyond that, levels could never be raised by synthesis again—it was almost all hunting from there, and even then the gains crawled.
Max level takes what, five years or so?
And that was only achievable by grinding like a no-lifer, hunting every single day without fail. Even Jinugod of Battle of Summoners had only started seeing one or two max-level summons around his eighth year.
The world rankers probably averaged in the fifties, level-wise?
And that was actually considered sky-high. Late game, the EXP to go from 51 to 52 outstripped everything it took to go from 1 to 51!
Song Yeonhee ought to thank me. He was letting her gorge on this massive ghost EXP as it was.
As for mine...... no problem there. The puppet Baek Jinwoo planned to use later was a separate one—a single A-grade Unique puppet, purchasable from the shop with the upcoming Chaos Demon Dragon reward. The catch was that, being Unique, only one existed per server, so he'd have to snag it first come, first served—but that was a worry for another day.
Focus up, now.
The city's silhouette was coming into view. Every single thing down there was a ghost!
Time remaining: roughly three and a half hours. He had to smash it all within that window to clear—time to put those fingers to work.
[You have conquered the three Ghost Cities.]
[Congratulations!]
[You have conquered Floor 26 of the Tower of Ordeal!]
To sum up the results... last place went to Baek Jinwoo.
Well, obviously. No matter how masterfully he controlled the puppets, how could he outrun the EX-grade summons? Around the three-hour mark, Hungyo flattened one city; at roughly four hours, Ramba's family took down theirs. Baek Jinwoo, having cleared the entire outskirts, was about halfway through the interior when only twenty minutes remained on the clock. He hurried straight to the center and crushed the City Ghost.
Well, leaving it at this much was fine. Too easy would be boring, wouldn't it? Hungyo could just steal a little more of the spotlight on Floor 30.
And then, the reward arrived!
[Your reward has arrived.]
[You have acquired Guaranteed Summoning Scroll (C-grade)!]
Huh?
Baek Jinwoo's eyes went round as saucers.
Wait. What did that say?
A Guaranteed Summoning Scroll?
Holy shit......
Holy shit, THIS is it, thiiiiis is it!
With a roar, Baek Jinwoo threw his arms up in a triumphant cheer.
Night had already fallen.
Creeeak!
He pushed open the tower's main doors, and the chilly autumn evening air flooded his lungs.
"Jinwoo, sir!"
As if she'd been waiting, Hwang Jiwoo came darting over.
There she is.
A campfire blazed before the tower—Pokryongi's handiwork, by the look of it.
"Oh? You look absolutely thrilled, sir."
"That obvious, huh?"
Hahaha.
He was happy. How could he not be!
He'd told Baek Ajin, too. If a C-grade Guaranteed Summoning Scroll—or even a blueprint—ever surfaced anywhere, she was to tell him immediately. She was to comb every last corner of the globe for one.
And of all things, of all places—on a mere Floor 26!
Like it had been waiting just for me.
"Where's Song Yeonhee?"
"She finished training and headed home. She said she'd be back at five tomorrow morning."
Ah, right. Hwang Jiwoo was stationed here because of the contract, but Song Yeonhee had no real reason to stick around with him.
"It's not too hard on you?"
Come to think of it, he really did owe Hwang Jiwoo. Contract or no contract, she'd had her freedom stripped away and been tethered to this place, all because of Pokryongi.
"It'd be a lie to say it isn't hard, but the harder it gets, the happier I am, too."
"Happy?"
"Yes. As a player, I'm lucky enough to be standing in a spot anyone would envy."
Goodness. Even the way she talked was lovely. With a mindset like that, good fortune would fall right into her lap—even in her sleep.
"Pokryongi's been behaving?"
He walked over to the campfire and sat down beside it, and Pokryongi answered with a smile.
- Yes, Jinwoo, sir. Jiwoo and I have been in contact the whole time. Should I go with you on the next floor?
"Yeah, you are—but hold on a moment."
Swish!
First, he drew out the Guaranteed Summoning Scroll.
"Let me do a little summoning first."
Right. Being left behind here, losing out all on her own, had to sting—so he'd at least give her a good show.
[Guaranteed Summoning Scroll]
[Grade: C]
[Guarantees the summon of any C-grade summon of your choice.]
Ahhh.
No matter how many times he looked at it, his heart swelled.
The list of EX-grade summons still remaining was as follows:
— Small Giant (C-grade)
— Damphir (C-grade)
— Aso (A-grade)
— Mamyov (A-grade)
— Myeolmang-yong (S-grade)
Those were their original grades; patched into oblivion as they'd been, in reality they'd all be EX-grade.
So—Small Giant or Damphir......
Small Giant was the tank, Damphir the healer. The problem was that either one alone got treated like a maggot; only when the two were bundled together did they become outright broken.
A shame he could only use one first. If Baek Jinwoo was pulling one now, it was Small Giant, no contest.
Here we go.
Riiiip!
Baek Jinwoo tore the scroll open without hesitation.
[Using Guaranteed Summoning Scroll (C-grade)!]
[Player Baek Jinwoo is selecting a summon!]
Shhhrrrr!
Same as before. A staggering number of cards flooded Baek Jinwoo's vision.
Baek Jinwoo immediately pictured the Small Giant's appearance.
Jakgeo, for short.
What a contradictory name—a giant meant someone huge, and yet this one was small. And you know what made it even funnier? The guy wasn't even human. He was a golem. An ordinary stone golem, at that, with wild grass sprouting from every crevice of his body.
Shff, shhhrrr!
The cards shuffled, then all but one vanished.
Ohhh!
Just as expected—EX-grade!
Baek Jinwoo snatched up the card without delay.
[Player Baek Jinwoo has acquired the summon Small Giant (EX-grade)!]
The one and only masochist tank whose HP and MP refilled the more he got hit! The very golem who had once built a mountain of a defensive line together with Damphir now appeared.
- G-gwooooh?
KUUUUNG!
A golem of modest size, roughly three meters tall, punched through the air and appeared. In his hands he hefted a massive shield.
Summon: Small Giant
Species: Golem
Grade: EX-Grade (Quarantined)
— Isolated after a balance-breaking element was detected under specific conditions.
Level: 1
[Stats]
Strength: 1, Intelligence: 1, Stamina: 1, Agility: 1
HP: 1,000, MP: 0
Critical Rate: 20%
Critical Damage: 20%
[Skills]
◈ Indomitable — Recovers 20% of damage taken as HP.
◈ Magic Absorption — Recovers 20% of damage taken as MP.
- Gwo! Gwooooh!
Like Doldori, this one couldn't communicate in words.
"Wh-what is that?"
"Him?"
At Hwang Jiwoo's question, Baek Jinwoo smiled.
"Say hello. This is Jakgeo—you'll be seeing plenty of him from now on."
- Gwooooooooh!
And so began the first meeting with Jakgeo, the steadfast shield who would stand guard before Baek Jinwoo in the days to come.