The Tower of the War God

He had already used the Wish Bead, after all.

Still, with the capacity to lay up to four hundred eggs a day, there would be no serious disruption to the assault on Isera.

That was when it happened.

"Kakaka!"

The creature tore through space and appeared out of nowhere.

"Where the hell have you been?"

I asked, puzzled. Hell rummaged around and reached into a pouch at his front, then slowly held out two potions toward me.

I could only blink at them for a moment. Of course I did.

"……Stored Experience Potions?"

What Hell had offered me were Union's Stored Experience Potions.

I looked back and forth between Hell and the potions for a long time.

How had he even gotten these?

And this was no ordinary experience. These were treasure vaults of experience—potions packed with a truly staggering amount.

Once I finished inspecting the potions, a smile rose to my face on its own.

Either way, the operation to show Hell to Union had been a success. A complete success.

My guess that the Mage of the Golden Rule had deep ties to the Empire had been correct. I had even learned Isera's location and his objective.

And somehow—I still had no idea how—Hell had brought back potions filled with Union's experience on top of everything else.

Hell had been a Trojan horse in the truest sense.

"……Dragon God hunting, is it."

Isera. I had wondered why he had gone so quiet—of course he had been hiding another scheme.

I'll have to find them first.

Now that I knew his goal, I could not simply leave him free to seek out the Dragon Gods ahead of me. And as it happened, I already had a fair idea of how to find them.

Time to push the Main Quest further.

Once I reached Main Quest 10, I would meet the Mad Dragon Ainharthar. Ainharthar would become the gateway that led to the Dragon Gods.

But first, it was time to enjoy a feast.

Gulp.

Gulp.

I slowly tipped Union's experience potions into my mouth.

……Wait. Ten percent?

I was stunned all over again the moment I drank it. A full ten percent from a single potion.

…………Just how many levels' worth of experience was packed in there?

And this one was not even the whole of it. Hell had brought two. Union would still be holding far more than this.

Tower of the War God

Ever since the Second Invasion began, Player Talk had been more active than ever.

Posts flooded in in real time for the sake of instant information exchange. But the consensus among everyone was the same: it was unnervingly quiet.

There had been a little chaos right after the invasion began, but no real campaign had shown itself yet.

Ahram and the Dead of hell under his command. And it was not just one or two people who had fled in terror from the first hell itself—the Swamp of the Dead.

How many hells the Demon Realm even held, and who their lords were, was knowledge limited to a select few.

At least the second hell—the Scorching Hell—had been experienced by a fair number of people. The problem was that its nightmarish difficulty had produced even more deaths and dropouts.

Finding Isera's weakness alone had taken a full four days. If Wilhelm and the knights had not held the front while the priests held the rear, a total wipe in that time would not have been surprising at all.

That was why it had taken three days. With the priests' blessings, the buffs never stopped. Wrapped in layer upon layer of buffs, the very idea of "attack only when every buff has less than five seconds remaining" had been practically impossible.

Finding that weakness had been such a forced march that anyone who lived through it still shuddered at the memory.

No matter how still the world seemed, the invasion had begun. Every Player was already on high alert—especially those who knew Isera.

Drakestar had appeared on the 8 Heroes Council's official social account. Along with announcing the Council's official position, he had posted a video proving he was a 3-star Transcendent, and it was exploding across the net.

A sparring video against Gracia, no less.

……A video of Drakestar matching Gracia blow for blow.

Everyone who watched the video was left stunned. The vast majority had always seen Gracia as a strongest-tier fighter on a completely different level from the other Council heroes.

And yet here he was, fighting as an equal against Drakestar—someone who until recently had been treated as far beneath him. He was even being pushed back in places.

It made no sense. It was impossible. But a video posted on an official account could not simply be a fabrication.

The video rocketed past a hundred million views in no time. Gracia and Drakestar as equals! It became the moment the Heroes Council's standing hardened again. If there was another powerhouse on Gracia's level, of course people would start to trust them.

……

The Tower of the War God.

A tower you climbed by pitting your strength against other powerhouses. It was also one of the first towers people thought of when progressing through Main Quest 3—Climb the Tower. The reason I had come here now was simple.

To find the Dragon Gods, I needed to push the Main Quest first. I had only cleared as far as Main Quest 8, Purify the Source of Corruption.

Isera will not move for at least fourteen days.

That was also why I could afford to be in Pangenia right now. I was certain he would not make a move until he finished his Dragon God hunt.

He did not know me—but I knew him well. This was not simply because I had spent four days locked against him hunting for a weakness. I had known about Isera long before the Great Expedition. Investigating the lords of hell had been mandatory before entering the Demon Realm.

Isera only moves according to plan.

So I had to clear Main Quest 9 as fast as possible. Within fourteen days, at the very least.

"Form a line!"

"General spectator tickets are sold out for today!"

"Scalped tickets for sale!"

The area around the Tower of the War God thronged with people. The duels here were one of the most famous entertainments in all of Pangenia, and crowds from across the world regularly poured in just to watch.

"……Do I have to climb with you as well?"

The elf Auryll looked around with a distinctly uneasy expression as she spoke. For an elf like her to be packed into a crowd like this was a miracle in itself. The thought of climbing the Tower of the War God and becoming a spectacle on top of that would not make stepping inside any easier.

"You're climbing too."

I was merciless about it either way. Climbing alone would draw far too much attention. I needed Auryll to split the eyes of the crowd.

"……And I have to wear this?"

"What? Don't like how it looks?"

"A rabbit mask……"

Auryll's expression grew even more dubious as she eyed the mask I had prepared in advance to hide her face. Tall ears, shaped like a rabbit. But the Tower of the War God was a place where concept mattered. It was not pure combat alone—spectator popularity factored into the score. To climb higher, faster, we needed a solid concept.

"And…… what is that animal?"

Auryll looked at me and tilted her head—more precisely, at the mask I was wearing.

"A penguin."

"Excuse me?"

"An emperor penguin. You might not know it."

An animal someone like Auryll, who had lived only in warm forests, would naturally never have seen. I wore the emperor penguin mask and went bare-chested like a barbarian.

The Barbarian Penguin Warrior concept. A costume I was certain would never overlap with anyone else in this place. A move to snatch popularity as fast as possible and climb the tower.

"Put this on too."

"This is……"

Auryll's face went rigid as she stared at the outfit I handed her. She trembled, desperately trying to reject reality. She seemed unable even to picture herself wearing it.

But if you cannot avoid it, you might as well enjoy it—or so they say. I calmly forced her to face the truth.

"It's a bunny girl outfit."

"…………"

Sancha, administrator of the tower, clicked his tongue as he looked over the stack of documents in his hands.

"Not a single proper newcomer again this time."

"Still, shouldn't we at least run the tests?"

The man who had handed over the papers asked carefully. Sancha shook his head.

"No need to look. Nothing but worthless trash that will only make the audience frown."

"Then what will you do? Fail them all?"

Plenty of people wanted to climb the Tower of the War God. This was a stage of opportunity where gold, treasure, and honor could all be seized. Dozens of applicants showed up every day. But climbing the Tower of the War God required Sancha's permission.

Sancha had managed the tower for over twenty years. A glance at what was written on the forms was enough for him to tell whether someone was the real thing or not.

There are a few amusing ones, though.

A handful were too unusual to simply fail outright. So Sancha revised his plan from a total rejection.

"Hmm. We'll run it as an event."

"An event, sir?"

"Put every one of these newcomers against an ogre."

"……Won't they all die?"

"We'll warn them in advance, of course. That they might die."