Randolph's Biography

p>Hint.

An element that makes the answer easier to solve.

Everyone who had climbed the tower expected it. They believed the Blade Dragon God's weakness would be revealed through the "hint"—or that they could at least deduce it. But the hint that appeared shattered their expectations head-on.

"The hint is Randolph?"

"Well, Randolph is at the top of the tower, so there's bound to be some connection."

"The Four Calamities' Baal, and now the Blade Dragon God? What do both of them have to do with Randolph?"

They simply could not figure it out. The single word "Randolph" alone told them nothing. So those who had climbed the tower spread the hint far and wide, hoping for a precise deduction. Within a few hours, people across the entire world—Earth and Pangenia alike—knew about the hint.

"Alright, let's organize this by timeline."

"So when did the Blade Dragon God first appear?"

"When Isera invaded. It didn't show up from the start. A Dragon Vein suddenly formed in Korea, and a world message ordered us to protect it."

"What next?"

"While we were holding the line, Union and the 'Death God of the Black Egg' appeared. The Demon King's army got forcibly warped away."

"And we fought a desperate battle against the Demon King's forces until the Dragon Vein was complete… Even after Isera absorbed Earth's original Dragon God, Lucaria, the Blade Dragon God still drove Isera back."

"The problem was that it went berserk. Then something subdued the rampaging Blade Dragon God and carried it into the Dragon Vein."

"Right. That was probably the 'God of the Black Egg.'"

"The same 'God of the Black Egg' who killed the Four Calamities' Baal."

"And if that 'God of the Black Egg' is Randolph…?"

What did that imply? At the very least, both Baal and the Blade Dragon God that had appeared so far were deeply entangled with the God of the Black Egg. Of course, there was no certainty that the God of the Black Egg was Randolph. But given that Randolph was the tower's champion—and now the final boss they had to subjugate—the possibility was more than real.

Only then did a spark light in people's eyes.

"Don't tell me the 'mid-bosses' showing up now are all things Randolph defeated… or was deeply involved with?"

"Could be."

"Are we living through 'Randolph's Biography' right now?"

Randolph's biography! The tower itself was reenacting his life story. One by one, opinions converged. Yet puzzling points remained.

"How do we explain the sudden appearance of the trials from the Tower of Mystery in Kramdel? Is that connected to Randolph too?"

"The newly appointed Fifth Lord under ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the White King is also named Randolph. We thought it was just ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a coincidence because of the name… but according to what we've learned, that Fifth Lord Randolph was the first crow to clear the Tower of Mystery all the way through."

"Fifth Lord, Tower of Mystery, Dreadful Omen, Baal, Blade Dragon God… All of this is connected to Randolph—no, to Phantom?"

"You think that's everything? There'll be more."

"If this is true, then Phantom is a god."

Phantom is a god. That was the only conclusion that made sense. No human could be involved with every single one of those things. Moreover, Phantom had only appeared a few years ago. In that short time he had achieved overwhelming martial power no one could match, and forged a myth.

And if all these conjectures proved true…

"Just how strong… is Randolph, then?"

Gulp.

People swallowed hard. They could not even begin to estimate it. Their common sense simply could not grasp it. Randolph was not merely someone who had seized five stars.

At the same time, they grasped the gravity of the situation.

"What happens when time runs out and the tower collapses?"

"The curse is released. Everything inside the tower spills out."

"Even Randolph?"

"Yes, Randolph too. But it won't be the Randolph we know."

"…You mean Randolph is being eroded by the tower's curse?"

"Exactly. So we have to purify the curse before he breaks free. Climb the tower, raise the phase, and reach Randolph—only then will any kind of answer appear."

"And if we reach him and still can't solve it?"

"…Then we really will have to subjugate him. By any means necessary."

They even prepared for the worst-case scenario. Naturally, they could not simply stand still. Giant guilds and alliances raced to share every scrap of information they had.

"Bring everything you know about Randolph—everything you've investigated!"

"Contact the other guilds too! Especially the Hero Alliance in Korea! They must know something more!"

"You can't get through to Park Taewoo? Then go meet him in person if you have to!"

"Damn it. I'll go myself!"

A barrage of calls poured in. Yet Park Taewoo, leader of Korea's Hero Alliance, did not move an inch from his office.

"……"

Tap. Tap.

He drummed his fingers on the desk, lost in deep thought.

Hudson knows the answer.

At the end of every hint and every chain of deduction, Park Taewoo believed Hudson stood waiting. Back when the Dragon Vein first appeared, Hudson had confronted him and demanded he bring the Dragon God Lucaria. In exchange, Hudson had handed over Rundela—the Ruins City that had originally belonged to Fifth Lord Randolph.

No one knows Hudson's real-world identity.

That was the problem. Hudson was a Descended Body—not his Earth form, but a transformed appearance created with a fragment of the Golden Rule. No one knew Hudson's true identity. And the same was true of Randolph.

Hudson knows about Randolph. He might even know his Earth identity.

There had once been a rumor that England's newly appeared "Oliver" was Randolph. But no one had ever confirmed it. What was truth and what was falsehood? With the information he currently possessed, it was impossible to tell.

He had to find Hudson. Yet one other thing still nagged at him.

If the hint about the Blade Dragon God's weakness is Randolph…

During Isera's invasion, when Drakestar and everyone else fled, only Park Taewoo had stayed to the end. He had fought to the last. Even when the Blade Dragon God went berserk and killed Isera, he had been there. And he had sensed it—though he had not seen it with his own eyes. Perhaps because he was the one who had brought Lucaria, or perhaps because of his class, Dragon Spirit Master…

…He had felt it. The pain spreading from the chest of the rampaging Blade Dragon God.

"Randolph… himself is the weakness."

The Blade Dragon God had attacked the God of the Black Egg, and that pain had been shared. Only Park Taewoo could know that. Yet he also knew that speaking of it would change nothing.

"To meet Randolph we have to subjugate the Blade Dragon God, and to subjugate the Blade Dragon God we have to meet Randolph…"

The hint itself was the answer. It was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠an open-book exam. Yet even though the answer had been given, they still could not solve it. Did that make any sense? A problem you could not solve even when you already knew the answer!

That was why. Telling anyone would be useless.

"Haa……"

Park Taewoo sank into deep gloom.

Raiga.

He had climbed the tower. He broke through the twentieth floor and reached the twenty-first.

"……"

Yet his expression refused to ease.

The Four Calamities' Baal was summoned and then subjugated.

He could not understand the reason for it no matter how hard he tried. Why had Baal been summoned into the Tower of the War God? There was no need to verify it. The summoned Baal had been the real thing.

"The Manifestation Realm……"

Clatter. Clatter.

Countless skeleton soldiers stood before his eyes. He paid them no mind. What interested him far more was the tower itself.

The Manifestation Realm. A peculiar domain he had experienced several times even in the Abyss—one that produced unique phenomena. A strange world that gave form to imagination and thought. That was the Manifestation Realm.

Everything given shape inside the Manifestation Realm was real. Indistinguishable from the genuine article. Yet nothing summoned or shaped there could ever exceed the limits of the "master" who ruled the realm. Therefore, everything currently existing inside the tower lay within Randolph's limits. It also meant these were things Randolph had personally experienced thoroughly enough to materialize them. Mere fantasy alone had limits even inside the Manifestation Realm.

In other words—

"This place is inside Randolph's dream."

It was the interior of a dream that looked back on the events Randolph had lived through. Then a natural question arose.

Randolph. Who was he? Who could he be, to have materialized such varied and vast experiences?

Raiga knew the man was spoken of like a legend among the "sinners." Yet the summoning of Baal still bothered him. He himself had seen Baal not long ago.

The Golden Goat.

The Four Calamities' Baal that his Orthodox had summoned as a Death God. The Golden Goat had boldly taken a seat as an executive of the Death God Religion. Yet it had vanished. It had entered the Abyss with him and then disappeared without a trace. Perhaps that creature was deeply connected to his own "lost memories" as well.

That was why he was curious.

Randolph and the Golden Goat. What is the relationship between the two?

Randolph was a sinner. A player. But the Golden Goat was not. The Death God Religion was not so incompetent that it would fail to distinguish a single sinner when appointing executives. More importantly, with the Archangel present, no sinner could freely roam the palace grounds. Therefore the two could not be the same person. It was more reasonable to assume they shared a deep connection.

Randolph. Who the hell are you?

……He would have to look into it once.

Messages appeared out of nowhere before his eyes. Raiga's expression hardened further.

Cleared simultaneously?

The moment he cleared the twenty-first floor, the twenty-second floor was also cleared. Even Raiga could not comprehend the phenomenon. Just thinking about who Randolph was and where the Golden Goat had gone already made his head ache.

Park Hyunmyung, was it? For a moment the "Hyun" of Adrium flashed through his mind, but even so—this was a matter of facing ten thousand skeleton soldiers of matching level that kept growing stronger. And how was one supposed to clear two floors at the same time?

Even Raiga, with all his vast experience, could not conceive of such a variable, such a miracle. The furrow between his brows only deepened.

Boom!

Rumble…

Crash! Crash! KRAAAASH!

"……"

I quietly watched the skeleton soldiers topple before my eyes like a chain of dominoes. Giant skeleton soldiers whose height alone reached ten meters. When they swung their arms and loosed arrows of light, the situation should have been hopeless. Yet from a certain moment onward, the giant skeleton soldiers began to fall one by one. The moment the foremost skeleton soldier collapsed, a chain reaction set in; they toppled and shattered in a cascading row like dominoes.

The phenomenon began the instant I reached the twenty-second floor.

Same here.

The skeleton soldiers that possessed giant traits were only level 4. A level far too low to sustain those enormous bodies. Maintaining and moving such massive frames must have been impossible. They certainly lacked the strength to catch and support the collapsing bulk in front of them.

Crash! Crash! Crash! KRAAAASH!

—This is cheating, caw!

The God of Ashes, who had been watching the spectacular sight, spat out a bitter remark. I thought the same. It was cheating. But it was reality. What could I do about my level being so low? Even after hunting tens of thousands of skeleton soldiers, my level remained stuck at 4.

Sorry for having a constitution that barely levels up.

I shrugged.

A bonus stage. Yet the rewards were still sweet.

Even the God of Omen, who had been watching quietly, finally spoke.

—Aren't they giving too much?

—Luck is also skill. In the end this happened because our child is extraordinary, caw!

—Didn't you just call it cheating?

—Shut up, you ominous bastard. I never said any such thing, caw!

—At any rate, the speed is beyond imagination. I should start preparing "the other side" as well.

—Kahaha! No matter what you bring out, you will never be able to face our "Child of Ashes"!

—Quite the confidence, caw.

The God of Omen laughed with a dry chuckle, as if he intended to watch just how long that confidence would last.

Gooooooo.

In that instant, something enormous was summoned before my eyes.

"……"

I momentarily lost the ability to speak at the sight of it. It was not a skeleton soldier. It could not be compared to any of those trials. The massive monster that appeared before me was somehow familiar—yet it was a genuine monster among monsters, ferocious beyond measure.

Trial of Ashes (5), "Dreadful Omen," appears.