And He Was Laughing
Silence fell over the hospital room.
A staffer from the Tower Management Bureau, seated at the bedside, checked the recorder and asked.
"Was it a mage-type monster?"
Han Seorin shook her head, slowly.
"I don't know."
It had looked nearly human—black robes drawn about it, a staff held in one hand.
"And there was truly only one enemy?"
"Yes. No other monsters. No summons, either."
Twelve had gone in. Not just any twelve—the finest party the nation could field, built from the strongest hunters in South Korea. A single enemy had annihilated them.
"Did you attack first, Hunter Han Seorin?"
"Yes."
"And the skill you used?"
"Ice Lance."
Ice Lance—the advanced form of Ice Sphere. Her signature spell, bought for her by the state at a staggering cost in gold. A skill that had never lost its edge, not even on the upper floors.
"Did the enemy's defensive skill stop it?"
"I don't know."
"Then did it collide with another attack?"
"No. Not that either."
Han Seorin's fingers knotted in the blanket.
"It activated properly. I'm certain of that."
The Ice Lance had torn toward the enemy's heart with ferocious force. It never arrived. It did not explode. It struck nothing at all.
"Right in front of him... it simply vanished."
"Vanished?"
"Yes."
The spear of ice disappeared without a trace, and for the first time the mage in the black robe turned his eyes on Han Seorin.
And he laughed—the way an adult laughs, watching a child swing a toy.
"So I used a skill-seal scroll."
The staffer's expression changed.
"An item issued by the state?"
"Yes. We brought it in case we met a mage-type boss."
It was single-use, and it cost as much as a high-grade skill book. Within its range, it sealed the magic-type skills of every target for a set time.
Han Seorin still remembered the message that had surfaced when she tore the scroll.
The target's magic-type skills have been sealed.
It had succeeded. She was sure of that. The scroll vanished, and the system itself reported that the effect had taken hold.
"And even then, it did nothing?"
"The effect applied."
"Then how did he..."
Han Seorin bit down on her lip.
"He cast magic at once."
The instant the seal took hold, the black-robed mage lifted his staff. Lightly. That was all.
The barrier covering the vanguard's front tore apart in a single stroke.
No alert that he had resisted the seal. No message that he had dispelled it. As if the scroll had never been used at all.
"And after that?"
"Everyone attacked."
Han Seorin closed her mouth. There was no need to tell the rest. Twelve had gone in. Only two came back.
The staffer could not bring himself to ask another question.
Pale, Han Seorin stared up at the ceiling.
"You can't send our current forces back up."
Her voice came out thin, and it shook.
The staffer switched off the recorder and rose.
"Thank you for your testimony. We'll go over the details again once you've recovered."
But the staff did not leave at once.
Another staffer came up to the bed with a tablet in hand.
"There's one more thing we'd like to confirm."
"What is it?"
"The records of a hunter who's been climbing the Tower since yesterday. His nickname is Dekaron."
Han Seorin knew the name. The rookie who, on his first day inside the Tower, had brought into being an S-Rank that had never existed.
The staffer turned the screen toward her and brought up a photograph. Far off in a gray canyon, a spear of ice stood driven into the opposite cliff, stark and out of place.
"An Ice Lance."
There was no hesitation in the answer.
"You're certain?"
"Yes. It's the mark of an ice spear passing clean through a target."
Ice Lance was the spell she had cast as her mainstay, hundreds of times over.
Han Seorin swiped to the next image. The distance was closer than before. Shot from another angle, the spear of ice looked thicker than the column of any ordinary building. It had run a lizardman through, shield and all, and driven deep into the rock, and enormous cracks spidered out through the stone around the impact.
Her hand stopped.
"...Wait."
Zooming in, she shook her head.
"This isn't an Ice Lance."
"The shape looks the same."
"...An Ice Lance can't leave a mark that size."
Even her own Ice Lance could punch through a shield and a lizardman both. But to form that much ice—and drive it through the target and the cliff together—was impossible.
"Then what skill is it?"
Han Seorin had no easy answer. Among the ice magics she knew, nothing matched it exactly.
"At the very least, it has to be magic above Ice Lance."
At that, the staffer brought up another file.
"What you're describing doesn't match what we've found so far."
"What do you mean?"
"We did a full sweep of the magic shops on the lower floors, before and after Dekaron appeared. There's no record of a high-tier ice-magic skill book being sold."
"He could have gotten it from someone else."
"We're checking that possibility as well. But of the ice-type skill books sold in that window, only one could plausibly be tied to Dekaron."
A familiar name appeared at the center of the screen.
Han Seorin's gaze stopped.
"...Ice Sphere?"
"The shopkeeper wouldn't cooperate, so we couldn't confirm the buyer's identity. But the time of the sale lines up with when Dekaron entered the sixth floor."
"You can't conclude anything from that alone."
"Circumstantially, there's no other explanation."
"No."
Han Seorin's voice was firm.
"Ice Sphere could never do that."
A beginner spell, one that shaped a spear of ice no thicker than a forearm. She had used it herself, back when she was still a novice hunter.
"It could have been a single-use scroll. There might be a skill book the Bureau never found. He could have amplified the power with special equipment."
"And the possibility that it's a trait unique to Dekaron?"
Han Seorin looked at the pillar of ice.
"A trait could raise a skill's power. I'll grant that."
She shook her head.
"But no matter how far you push it, a basic spell like Ice Sphere cannot take that form."
She had no intention of denying that Dekaron was strong. This, though, was a different matter from strength. On the evidence of that mark alone, she could not accept that a mage greater than herself had appeared.
Then every terminal in the room chimed at once.
Ting—
Challenger Dekaron has cleared the 7th floor with an S-Rank.
Han Seorin's eyes went wide.
"How long has it been since he cleared the sixth floor?"
"...Not even thirty minutes."
"And when did he first enter the Tower?"
The staffer paused.
"Today is his second day."
Han Seorin looked again at the photograph of the ice pillar. They had not yet made sense of the last record, and already Dekaron was writing the next.
The Tower Management Bureau's emergency conference room.
On the great screen, an S burned beside every floor from the first to the seventh. Not one was missing.
The Bureau Chief spoke.
"The retry of the sixty-fifth floor is postponed indefinitely. The survivors' recovery comes first. We'll discuss reforming the raid party after that."
No one objected.
"In its place, contact with Dekaron is our first priority. On Grace Period alone, what he has already secured for us comes to two hundred and ten days."
One of the executives raised a hand.
"The moment we make contact, he should be brought in under the state. Even if we have to meet whatever terms he wants."
"And if he refuses?"
"This is a national matter. We have more than enough grounds to demand his cooperation."
The Bureau Chief looked at him.
"This is a man who, two days after entering, has rewritten every floor through the seventh at S-Rank."
"Which is exactly why we have to secure him faster, Chief."
"No."
The Chief closed the file in front of him.
"Which is exactly why we must not assume that we can."
The conference room went quiet.
"Releasing his identity. Compelling him to appear. Tracing the people around him. Anything he himself would take as a threat is forbidden."
"So we just fold our hands and wait?"
"Find Dekaron. Do not pressure him."
The Chief looked at the S glowing on the screen.
"Right now, he is the most important person in South Korea—the one relationship we cannot afford to ruin."
At that moment an alert sounded through the room.
Challenger Dekaron has cleared the 8th floor with an S-Rank.
The staffer on duty rushed to update the record. An eighth S joined the rest on the great screen.
"...The added Grace Period?"
"Two hundred and forty days in total."
Between the opening of the meeting and its failure to settle even a single decision, Dekaron had climbed another floor.
No one offered another opinion. Silence settled over them.
In that stillness the Bureau Chief gathered his thoughts for a long while, and was just about to speak.
Ting—
The same sound rang again.
Challenger Dekaron has cleared the 9th floor with an S-Rank.
A ninth S locked onto the screen.
"...The added Grace Period now stands at two hundred and seventy days in total."
The Bureau was still debating how Dekaron ought to be treated. In that short span, the man himself had climbed two floors more.
The Bureau Chief rose from his seat.
"We'll settle the terms of any negotiation with Dekaron later."
"Then what should we do now?"
"For the moment, let's watch through the tenth floor."
The screen changed.
A monster filled the display—a bull's head, a massive double-bladed axe gripped in its hands.
The standard method was to draw that crushing charge into a wall, then strike in the instant the collision brought it to a halt.
"Average clear time is fifty minutes to an hour, based on a party of ten novice hunters."
The staffer turned a page of the brief.
"The best record in the country is twenty-one minutes and forty-seven seconds. A top guild set it after run after run."
"Dekaron might break it."
"There's a problem, though."
A new entry appeared on the screen.
A roar that seals magic.
In the footage of a past clear, the minotaur roared—and every skill the party's mages had been preparing vanished at once.
"The moment battle begins, it seals magic-type skills for thirty seconds. After that, it repeats at set intervals."
"Is there a record of a mage clearing it alone?"
"None."
A mage's body could not endure the minotaur's attacks alone until the seal broke. Unless someone bought that time, even the chance to land a first blow was hard to come by.
Meanwhile, the same information had appeared on Han Seorin's screen.
A staffer turned to her.
"Do you think Dekaron can pass the tenth floor as well?"
"He's a strong hunter. I imagine he can."
"And if he's a mage?"
Han Seorin thought of the photograph—the pillar of ice. Whatever method he had used, that Dekaron was strong was beyond doubt. This floor, though, was different.
"If Dekaron truly is nothing but a mage, it won't be easy."
"Because his skills will be sealed?"
"Yes."
Han Seorin set the tablet down. Her voice stayed level.
"Special equipment, or a single-use scroll. This floor ought to tell us which."
In that moment, a new message surfaced.
Woojin's feet came down on a vast circular arena.
Across from him, an iron gate began to rise with a grinding groan.
Out of the dark, one massive hoof emerged.
Thud.
Thud.
Then a body several times the size of a man walked out. A head like a bull's. Two horns, thick and sharply curved. And a double-bladed axe as large as a grown man.
Defeat the Boss
📍 Objective: Defeat the boss monster Minotaur.
The minotaur raised its axe. Breath snorted rough from its nostrils, and its mouth stretched wide.
GRAAAAAAH—!
The roar shook the arena.
Messages flared before Woojin's eyes, one after another.
The Minotaur activates Roar of Mana Seal.
Magic-type skills are sealed for 30 seconds.
Fireball — cannot be used.
Lightning — cannot be used.
Ice Sphere — cannot be used.
Duration: 30 seconds
The minotaur dropped its shoulders and leveled the points of both horns at Woojin.
Boom—!
It drove its hooves into the floor and closed the distance at a dreadful speed.
Woojin glanced once at the message hanging before his eyes. Then he raised his right hand, the same way he always did.
Fireball cannot be used.
The system warned him again.
But in the next instant, a small ball of fire rose over Woojin's palm.
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