He Was Laughing

A hospital under the Tower Management Bureau of the Republic of Korea.

The two who had come back alive from the 65th floor were moved into intensive care the moment they arrived. One was Kang Hyunsoo, Rank 1 Hunter of South Korea. The other was Han Seorin.

She was the strongest mage in the nation, and the vanguard's only spellcaster. Even in a world that held mages in contempt, the government and the guilds had poured vast sums of gold and skill books into her—a hunter raised by the state itself, kept ready for the day a mage would be needed on a high-floor assault. Han Seorin was very nearly the only case in which that investment had succeeded.

Now she lay in intensive care, and consciousness had not even returned to her.

Officials of the Tower Management Bureau stood beside Kang Hyunsoo's bed. Bandages wrapped him from head to toe, but he was awake.

"Is there any chance the other members survived?"

Kang Hyunsoo slowly shook his head.

"I confirmed it myself. To the very end."

His cracked voice went on.

"They are all dead."

"We will send a rescue party of other hunters. On the chance that—"

"Do not send them."

Kang Hyunsoo cut him off.

"......You will not be looking for survivors. You will only add to the dead."

The official's mouth shut tight.

The survivors had to be treated. Strength had to be found to replace the ten dead hunters of the highest rank. What had been learned of the 65th floor had to be analyzed, and a new raid party assembled on top of it. Not one of those tasks could be finished in a short span of time.

"How long until we can attempt it again?"

"......"

Kang Hyunsoo could not answer. It was not a question of how long a second attempt would take. The question was whether South Korea had that much time left at all.

Word of the vanguard's return spread across the country at once. Every paper and every broadcast was plastered over with the shock of it.

Threaded through the despair, an entirely different name rose with them.

The internet was no quieter.

South Korea had lost, in a single stroke, a great number of the elite hunters it possessed. And on that same day, a rookie hunter whose very name was unknown had bought them five months.

Creating an S-Rank that had never ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠existed in the history of the Tower, and receiving S five floors in a row—both were firsts, and both belonged to Dekaron. Until yesterday, not a single person had known who he was. One day after he entered the Tower, a nameless rookie had become someone the nation expected more from than from countless rankers.

The next day, Woojin checked the articles on his phone as well. Of an elite vanguard of twelve rankers, only two had come back alive. The 65th floor could not be cleared.

"This is worse than I thought."

With the vanguard annihilated, another attempt on the 65th floor would be impossible for some time. Even the plan to buy time by renewing the records from the 61st floor upward had gone up in smoke. Treating the survivors and rebuilding the strength that had been lost would take a great deal of time.

There was only one way to buy that time. He would renew the lower floors at S-Rank himself, and while he did, recover more of the power from his previous life and climb as far as the 65th floor.

I'll have to move a little faster than I thought.

Woojin opened his inventory. After buying Ice Spear, two thousand gold remained. The next skill book, even the cheapest of them, started at forty thousand. Clear Floors 6 through 10 at S-Rank, and the total would come to forty thousand gold.

So the next goal is the 10th floor.

Woojin headed for the entrance to the 6th floor.

Not long after, the door of a magic skill-book shop opened, and two men in suits stepped inside. The shopkeeper caught, from the corner of his eye, the Tower Management Bureau identification hanging at their necks, and put on his business smile.

"Welcome. Is there a skill book you're looking for?"

"We're from the Tower Management Bureau."

"Oh! Has the Bureau decided to raise mages again?"

The shopkeeper rose, as if genuinely pleased.

"An excellent decision. I have a great many skill books I could recommend."

The official held out his identification.

"We didn't come to buy skill books."

"Ah."

A flicker of disappointment crossed the shopkeeper's face.

"By any chance, has a customer purchased Fireball and Lightning recently?"

The shopkeeper's eyes narrowed for the briefest instant. The Bureau was tracking Dekaron from the traces left between the 1st floor and the 5th. He set two skill books on the counter.

"As it happens, I have both in stock."

"I told you we didn't come to buy skill books."

"Ah. So you did."

The shopkeeper put the books away again.

"Such a shame. Visitors we so rarely see, and no interest in skill books at all."

"Was there anyone who bought both skills together?"

"I'm afraid I can't discuss what my customers purchase."

"......There's a chance that person is Dekaron."

The cloth wiping the counter paused. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠But the shopkeeper calmly fitted his business smile back into place and lifted his head.

"Was this Dekaron a customer of our shop?"

"Don't pretend you don't know."

"I truly don't."

The shopkeeper shrugged.

"We only sell skill books. We don't ask for nicknames."

"The survival of the nation is at stake."

At those words, the shopkeeper's smile hardened for an instant.

"Then I ought to be even more careful."

"What do you mean by that?"

"A man who won't show his name or his face must have a reason, don't you think?"

Just as the Bureau official opened his mouth, the shopkeeper casually slid the Fireball skill book forward again.

"Still, since you're already here, why not take a look at one before you go?"

The official's expression went cold.

"That will be all."

"The price is set by the Tower, so I can't give you a discount, but I'd be happy to explain it very thoroughly."

A brief silence passed.

"......We'll request your cooperation again later."

"Next time, you really must come to buy something."

The bell chimed, and the door closed. The shopkeeper stood smiling until the footsteps faded. Then the quiet settled in.

"Haa......"

He let out the breath he had been holding, long and slow. The palm braced on the counter was damp. He had played the fool the entire time, but the men across from him had been the Tower Management Bureau. One wrong answer, and Dekaron's information could have been handed over.

A single day inside the Tower, and already a state agency ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was tracing the magic he had used, going from shop to shop to dig out who he was.

"A customer the whole country comes looking for, after one day......"

A hollow laugh escaped him. He had sensed the man was no ordinary customer. He had not imagined it would be anything like this.

When the light receded, a long canyon opened before him, geysers erupting along its length. Hot water boiled up from the ground in places, and steam surged without end from the cracks in the rock.

Beyond the thick steam, a massive shadow revealed itself: a lizardman standing well over seven feet tall. In its hands were a long spear and a steel shield large enough to cover more than half its body.

Woojin called up the magic he had newly learned.

"Ice Spear."

Cold gathered. A single spear of ice formed before him, no thicker than a forearm—a small, sharp thing of transparent ice. An ordinary Ice Spear, the sort one might see anywhere.

"Krrk?"

The lizardman's mouth split in a long grin. It had no intention of dodging magic of that caliber. It drove the steel shield into the ground and lowered its body, the posture of a creature certain that an ice spear of that size could not so much as scratch the steel.

Woojin changed the mana array. An ordinary Ice Spear finishes all its freezing the instant it is formed. The one he had cast, though it had already taken shape, went on freezing.

Shwaaaak—!

The ice spear drove into the dense steam. There was nothing special about the attack. An Ice Spear of ordinary size and ordinary speed.

But.

Where the Ice Spear passed, the steam vanished. The moisture around it froze and layered onto the spear's surface, and the shaft that had been no thicker than a forearm swelled in an instant to the thickness of a man's arm. As it advanced, it dragged in the steam that filled the canyon. The hot air went cold. Frost spread across the rock.

The lizardman's grin disappeared. The Ice Spear had already grown past the thickness of a human waist, and still the freezing did not stop. Faster and faster it came, and along the white trail of its flight the steam was erased whole—and by every measure it vanished, the spear grew.

The lizardman reset its grip on the steel shield. At first, blocking with the center of the shield had seemed more than enough. But the Ice Spear, having crossed half the canyon, had grown large enough to swallow the shield entire. The creature took one step back.

Kwang!

It drove the lower edge of the shield deeper into the ground, both hands locked on the grip, meaning to brace with its whole body. But the Ice Spear was still flying through the steam.

Kwadudeuk—

The sound of ice locking against ice rang through the canyon. Each time steam wound around it, the transparent body grew thicker. When at last it reached the lizardman's eyes, it was difficult to call the thing an ice spear any longer. Its body had grown thicker than the great steel shield itself. What came flying across the canyon was not a spear. It was closer to a colossal pillar of ice.

The lizardman's vision filled with ice.

Kwaaaang—!

The tip of the enormous ice spear punched through the center of the steel shield, and the pillar of ice that followed crushed the shield inward. Steel tore like paper. The lizardman's feet left the ground.

"Kraaak!"

Lizardman and steel shield were hurled backward together.

Kugugugung—!

The colossal pillar of ice, having run the lizardman clean through, slammed into the cliff on the far side. Rock came down as if a landslide had broken loose. The pillar did not stop there. It bored deep into the wall.

A moment later, the canyon went quiet. The steam that had hung so thick slowly cleared. A massive pillar of ice stood driven into the cliff, and at its center the crumpled steel shield and the lizardman were buried so deep that not even their shapes remained.

Woojin, by contrast, had not moved a single step from the place where he first arrived.

A message surfaced.

He now held eight thousand gold. Woojin's steps turned toward the 7th floor.

At the same moment, a sixth notice rang out across every floor of the Tower, and throughout South Korea.

Eyes that had sunk beneath the vanguard's wretched defeat lifted once more toward the empty air. Before they quite realized it, people were waiting for Dekaron's next notice.

The hospital under the Tower Management Bureau.

The fingers of the woman lying in intensive care moved.

"Ms. Han Seorin?"

The medical staff rushed to the bed.

A short while later, an official of the Tower Management Bureau stood beside Han Seorin, who had regained consciousness.

"What in the world happened on the 65th floor?"

Han Seorin stared at the ceiling with unfocused eyes.

"There was... a mage."

"I see. Aside from the mage, what monsters were there?"

Han Seorin slowly shook her head.

"There was only one enemy."

The official asked again, as if he had misheard.

"......I'm sorry? What did you just say?"

It was a natural reaction. Inside the Tower, that was the level at which mages were regarded. A party of twelve of South Korea's highest hunters, annihilated by a single mage? If it reached the press, it would be suspected of false reporting, and then some.

The hands of the woman once called the greatest mage in South Korea trembled.

"The magic I used......"

Han Seorin clutched the blanket.

"It never even reached him."

"......What do you mean?"

As if that moment had risen before her, the color drained from Han Seorin's face.

"He looked at my magic, and......"

"......"

A brief silence passed.